LOU 5 Life History of Trogoderma Tarsale 369 
2. DISTRIBUTION AND DAMAGES. 
C. V. Riley (1883) says, “It is in fact the most common 
museum pest in this country and it is strange that Dr. Hagen 
in his paper on museum pests does not mention it. It is by no 
means peculiar to the West as the Professor seems to suppose. 
Here in Washington it is by far the most dangerous enemy to 
insect collections, and much more frequent than Anthrenus 
varius. In the field its larva is occasionally found in the 
cracks of hollow trees and similar situations, feeding on dead 
insects, but it is far more common in the deserted cells of 
Pelopoeus, Odynerus, Anthophora and other Hymenoptera, 
that store their cells with spiders or other insects.” 
The various notes on this beetle plainly indicate that in the 
United States it is distributed from coast to coast, and that it 
is especially abundant in the northern states. As a museum 
pest no other beetle can do more harm than T. tarsale which 
when once introduced into a building, is by no means easy to 
exterminate. Mounted insects especially suffer from the pest 
and large collections are often wholly destroyed by the larve. 
Here at the University of Wisconsin, as well as in numerous 
other places, in spite of the great pains taken in frequently 
inspecting the insect boxes, and in keeping them tightly covered, 
a large number of useful as well as rare specimens belonging to 
Dr. William S. Marshall are annually destroyed by the larve. 
Dr. Marshall says that they have even entered Riker mounts 
and eaten the insects contained therein. Not only do the 
larve attack animal matter such as dried insects, cocoons, furs, 
skins, wool, feathers, etc., but very frequently they are found 
devouring vegetable matter as cereals, seeds of all sorts, nuts, 
and even spices. In the University Drug Collection they were 
found by the thousands devouring flax and cotton seeds which 
had been stored away for a long time. 
F. H. Chittenden (1895) in a paper on some Dermestidee 
says, ‘“T. tarsale Melsh., a common museum pest, was found 
to infest flax seed, castor beans, and cayenne pepper that 
had been on exhibition in the museum of the U. S. Dept. of 
Agric., the larve being reared from the eggs deposited in these 
substances and the adults having been bred from other larve 
feeding on them.” 
