44 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



different uniforms; some looking like martial officers, or- 

 namented with one or two golden epaulets ; others, like 

 chamberlains of a despotic sovereign, ornamented with a 

 golden royal chamber-key on their side ; others in ordinary 

 working dress, and altogether quite respectable and corpu- 

 lent in their appearance, because they, like the persons 

 they so much resemble, live also on the fat of their fellow- 

 creatures. 



Now the greatest part of these Beetles, as I have already 

 mentioned, are very beneficial to man, by consuming car- 

 rion and all decomposing substances. But there is one 

 particular genus of them against which the naturalist al- 

 ways makes war, notwithstanding it is not larger than two- 

 thirds of a line. This small insect is called the Cabinet Bee- 

 tle (A nthrenus musccorujn),and is of a dark-brown color, cov- 

 ered with gray scales forming three stripes across the wing- 

 covers. If these scales are wiped off the insect appears 

 black, and loses its specific character. 



In spite of its diminutive size this insect is a great plague 

 to all cabinets of Natural History, and if they are not well 

 protected against it, they will all be destroyed by it in a 

 short time; for its larva? are able to make holes through the 

 hardest boards, and will make their way unperceived into 

 any case whatever. They eat the skins of stuffed animals, 

 and particularly the internal parts of insects, of which they 

 leave nothing but the wings. Thus the most precious and 

 costly collections will be entirely destroyed by it, if the ne- 

 cessary precautions are not taken to prevent it. 



The late General Andrew Jackson, President of the 

 United States, presented me in 1834 with two large boxes 

 of splendid South American Beetles and Butterflies, but, 

 much to my regret, on opening them I found the largest 

 and handsomest specimens destroyed by this little enemy 

 of naturalists. I succeeded, however, in saving a large 

 number of them from entire destruction by putting them 



