264 



Beetles 



and some whitish and so arranged as to give the back an irregularly spotted 

 appearance. The hairy larva; burrow into the specimens and niljble away 

 at the dry bodies. Their presence may be detected by a little pile of dust 

 under the pinned-up specimen and by the falling off of its legs, head, etc. 

 Pour a teaspoonful of carbon bisulphide into a corner of the case and 

 keep it tightly shut for a day. The fumes of the CSj are fatal to the pests. 

 The carpet-beetle or " buffalo-moth " (Fig. 361) is another species, A.scrophu- 

 laricB, of this same genus. The beetle is about ^\ inch long, marbled black 

 and white above with a central reddish line bearing short lateral offshoots 

 on each side. The larva is thick, soft, active, and covered with stiff brown 

 hairs. It feeds voraciously on carpets, working on the under side, and 

 usually making long slits following the floor-cracks. The beetles are common 

 outdoors on plants of the family Scrophulariaces, but come indoors to lay 

 their eggs. The remedy for the carpet-beetle is to use rugs instead of 

 carpets, and to lift and shake these rugs often. Another member of this 

 family attacking carpets is the black carpet-beetle, Allagenus piceus (Fig. 

 362). The beetle is black, and the larva is longer, more slender, and lighter 

 brown than the buffalo-moth, and has a conspicuous pencil or tuft of long 

 hairs at the posterior tip of the body. The larder- or bacon-beetle, Dennesles 



lardarius (Fig. 363), is about J- inch 

 long, dark brown with a pale-yellowish 

 band, containing six black dots across 

 the upper half of the wing-covers. 

 The larva is elongate, sparsely hairy, 



Fig. 363. Fig. 364. 



Fig. 36V — The lardcr-beelle, Dermesles lardarius, larva, pupa, and adult, (.^fler 



Howard and Marlalt; much enlarged.) 

 Fig. 364. — Larva of a water-penny beetle of the Parnidcs. (Four times natural 



size.) 



brown, and has two short curved spines on top of the last body-segment. 

 It feeds on many kinds of animal substance, as ham, bacon, old cheese, 

 hoofs, horn, skin, beeswax, feathers, hair, and also attacks museum specimens. 

 Another family of Clavicornia which possesses a special interest is the 

 Parnidx, or "water-pennies," a family of forty species representing ten genera 

 of small brown robust-bodied insects which live in water and yet do not 



