212 



HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



The adult is a small, blackish beetle only about one- 

 sixteenth of an inch in length. It is about twice as long 

 as wide and rather flattened (Fig. 61). It is very sober 

 in coloring and can readily be distinguished from the much 

 gayer colored "buffalo moth" beetle. 



The life history of this insect is not well known. Its 

 eggs are white, of a broad, oval shape, and are probably 



deposited about the edges 

 of the carpets or upon the 

 woolens or other materials 

 it may be feeding upon. 

 Chittenden has met with 

 the larvae in seeds and 

 other vegetable matter and 

 has shown that they will 

 breed successfully from the 

 egg in flour and meal. In 

 his studies of the life his- 

 tory of this pest he found 

 that two years were re- 

 quired for its development 

 from egg to beetle. The pupal stage was shown to last 

 from six to fifteen days. 



We have had the adults appearing in May in our breed- 

 ing jars and in dwellings. The pupae (Fig. 63) are clothed 

 with a coat of whitish hairs among which debris becomes 

 entangled, the whole resembling a very thin, f delicate 

 cocoon. On the dorsal side of each of six segments of the 

 abdomen there is a brownish eye-like spot. The inner 

 edges of the spots are fringed with minute teeth. When 

 the pupa is stroked with a needle along the back, these 

 spots contract and close up. The larvae of the black car- 



Fig. 63. — Pupa of the black carpet 

 beetle, dorsal and ventral view. 

 (X 9.) 



