RELATION TO THE HOUSEHOLD 



233 



All the members of this family are dull brown or 

 blackish, clothed with gray, white or colored scales ar- 

 ranged in more or less distinctive patterns. They are 

 more or less oval, without conspicuous head, and with 

 short legs and feelers that can be retracted and folded 

 close to the body, so that the insect, playing 'possum, 

 looks like a bit of dirt or other fragment among the 

 mass in which it lives. The larvae or grubs that do the 

 real damage are stumpy, worm-like creatures set with 

 brown hair, often with a longer 

 brush at the end of the body, 

 sometimes with a series of tufts 

 at the sides. 



The carpet beetles are best 

 known and least liked of all 

 these species, and in the adult 

 stage when they frequent the 

 flowers in our gardens, are 

 rarely recognized. The so- 

 called "buffalo-moth," in the 

 adult stage, is really very pret- 

 ty, with its lines of brilliant 

 red and white scales. This in- 

 sect is a feeder on animal hair, and that accounts for 

 its attacks on woollen goods and feathers. Its close 

 ally, the black carpet beetle, has similar habits, and 

 both sometimes get into a feather pillow and create 

 havoc. Where the cover to the pillow is of the right 

 texture, the feather fragments are occasionally worked 

 into it so as to form a soft, felt-like covering, that 

 puzzles the enraged housekeeper when she discovers 

 the condition of her feather stufifing. All woollen and 

 feather fabrics are attacked and fed upon, and the 

 best way to prevent trouble is to keep those things 

 not in actual use shut up until midsummer. A.fter 



Fn;. loS.—c. I lie larder bee- 

 e; a. its larva; h, larval hair. 



