292 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
hesitate to devour the skins of beasts and of birds that are placed 
in museums, and it is equally dreaded in shops where anything 
of the kind is sold. 
The Dermestes which frequent hides and stuffed animals are 
by no means disinclined to enjoy bacon and ham. If they cannot 
get anything of this sort to eat they have been known to destroy 
cork, whole cargoes being almost completely ruined by them. 
They have also been found in asbestos, perforating it in various 
directions, and undergoing their transformations there. Some 
other species than those we have noticed have been found in 
THE METAMORPHOSES OF Dermestes lardarius AND Dermestes vulpinus. 
Egyptian mummies. The larve of the Dermestes which is so 
destructive to museums have two strong mandibles, with which 
they commit their mischief, but usually the perfect insects of 
these pests do not do much harm. 
Another species of the genus, Dermestes vulpinus, although not 
so common over the whole world as the last, is occasionally found 
in great numbers. The larva are found under the same circum- 
stances as those just mentioned, and about twenty-five or thirty 
years since they caused such great damage in the furriers’ ware- 
houses and shops in London that a large reward was offered for a 
remedy which would destroy them. It is easy to kill them by 
evaporating benzine, or bisulphide of carbon, but it is necessary 
