ATTAGENUS MEG ATOM A AS A HOUSEHOLD PEST. 47 



Junj, but it is being frequently sent to me by correspondents from 

 widely-separated localities. 



The beetle a pollen feeder. — Like the carpet-beetle, the perfect insects 

 find at least a portion of their food in the pollen of flowers, as I have 

 captured them in large numbers in Washington park, Albany, on the 

 flowers of species of Spircea, associated with the Anthrenus. The beetle, 

 after it has done all the harm that it can in providing for a continua- 

 tion of tlie injuries of its larvae, by depositing its eggs upon our carpets 

 or other woolens, then displays a desire to gratify its harmless ap- 

 petite upon pollen. Seeking to leave our rooms in search of food, 

 it flies to the windows, and if these be closed, numbers of them 

 may be taken from the lower portions of the window casings and of the 

 window sashes. During the month of June, frequent examinations of 

 the borders of the carpets along the sides of the rooms in which they 

 are known to occur should be made for these little beetles, which, when 

 found, may, with much satisfaction, be crushed by the finger nail. Those 

 found upon the windows should also be killed, as they may possibly 

 not have made deposit of their entire quota of eggs. 



Infests hair-cloth furniture. — From examples of the beetle which 

 have been brought to me by a lady in Albany, and from the statement 

 made of the conditions under which they were found, it is quite prob- 

 able that it breeds to cpiite an extent in hair-cloth furniture, as chairs, 

 sofas, etc. One of its congenors, Attagenus pcllio (Linn.), which re- 

 ceived its specific name from its fondness for dried skins, and Avhich 

 occurs in the United States and over most of the civilized world, dis- 

 plays quite a varied taste for food, for it is stated of it that it also 

 eats cotton and linen fabrics, and is sometimes quite injurious to car- 

 pets. A writer says of it: "I have known it to select a particular stripe, 

 especially one of red flannel in the domestic fabric known as rag car- 

 ])ets, and follow it out into the middle of the room, gnawing it off at 

 intervals." 



Possibly eats cotton and linen fabrics. — The carpet-beetle, A. scrophu- 

 larice, has been charged with injuring lace curtains trailing upon the 

 carpets, but from all that we know of its habits, we are unwilling to ac- 

 cept such statements unless they shall be verified; we believe that it 

 only feeds upon woolen material. It is not at all improbable that Ave 

 have the author of these reported injuries to cotton and linens in the 

 Attagenus megatoina. If this suspicion is hereafter confirmed, and its 

 range of food found to embrace hair, furs, cotton, linen and wool, then 

 it is unquestionably a pest more to be dreaded in our homes tlian the 

 rapacious and destructive carpet-beetle. 



Remedies. — Benzine or kerosene oil will kill the eggs, larva and pupa 



