l886.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 97 



like a little ball of black lint. It has been named very inappro- 

 priately the Buffalo Moth, perhaps from the shaggy appearance, 

 and also from the fact that it was first noticed as injuring car- 

 pets at Buffalo, N. Y. In some parts of our country it has be- 

 come so destructive that catpets have been dispensed with, and 

 matting has been used in their stead. It has not been reported 

 as injuring carpets in Europe, probably, it is said, because there, 

 carpets are very generally taken up in summer and carefully 

 stowed away. The larva prefers wool for its food, but greedily 

 devours nearly all animal substances, especially furs, feathers, 

 leather and entomological and animal collections. 



The reports that it feeds occasionally on cotton goods and 

 vegetable substances have not been confirmed, and it does not 

 seem to affect silks. Carpet linings will protect the carpets 

 from these pests. But where the carpet meets the base board 

 of a room, they are sure to be found at work if they have the 

 opportunity. .Benzine is the best remedy known. A convenient 

 vessel for applying it is a tin can, with a slender spout, and hav- 

 ing a nozzle made from the point of an old silver pencil case. 

 This will pour a stream about the size of a steel knitting-needle, 

 and the benzine can be quickly and easily directed by it to the 

 right place, as one making the application passes the can along 

 the edge of the carpet. Benzine applied in this manner every 

 fortnight in spring, and once a month throughout the year, will 

 doubtless preserve a carpet on the floor, and also will preserve 

 woolen goods, furs and feathers, when stowed in chests, where 

 the stream of fluid can be poured upon the inner surfaces of the 

 chests and not upon the goods themselves. 



The scales here exhibited — white, red, and black, X 250 — are 

 from the back of the beetle, where they are larger and brighter than 

 elsewhere, although they cover the entire surface of the insect. 



This beetle belongs to the family Dermestidse, of which over 

 forty species are reported in this country. 



With the imago and larva of the Carpet-Beetle some related 

 species are exhibited, as Anthremis, varius, Fab., a well-known 

 museum pest, and the destructive Bacon-Beetle {Dermestes lar- 

 darius, I^.); also, Dermestes vulpinus, Fab., and Dermestes talpinus, 

 Mann. Also, two relatives, which are working with the Carpet- 

 Beetle and which may become equally destructive : Atiage?ius 

 megatoma. Fab., and Trogoderma tarsalis, Mels. 



