CLUB-HORN BEETLES 25 



his precincts who has so thoughtfully laid up such 

 grand stores for them. 



Some years ago, D. vulpinus, a black species with a 

 white patch on each side of the thorax, swarmed to 

 such a degree and was so destructive in large skin ware- 

 houses in London as to bring forth the handsome offer 

 of ^"20,000 for an available remedy. But satisfactory 

 remedies against the ravages of insects are usually diffi- 

 cult to discover, and difficult also to apply; and it is not 

 altogether surprising that even so tempting an offer failed 

 to secure the desired result. The curators of museums, 

 too, are likely to have their peace of mind affected by the 

 ravages of Dermestes. The larvae are by no means parti- 

 cular as to the class to which a preserved animal belongs, 

 and so birds, beasts, and fishes, crabs, insects, and spiders 

 may any or all fall before their jaws. Sometimes they 

 will attack a skin by nibbling away at the roots of the 

 hair or feathers, and so make a nice clean shave of the 

 whole affair ; occasionally they will forsake an animal for 

 a vegetable diet. Cork is a substance much favoured with 

 their attentions, and an account has been placed on 

 record of the destruction of a whole ship's cargo of this 

 material by vast numbers of them. On another occa- 

 sion they actually abandoned some tempting skins on 

 which they had been feasting for a set of corks that had 

 been introduced into their quarters. Nor is the house- 

 wife exempt from anxiety on the score of Dermestes. 

 Not only flitches of bacon, but even the meat in larders, 

 and the bladders covering the tops of jam-pots, have on 

 occasions yielded to their rapacity; books and papers, 

 too, are not safe, and, strangest of all, they have 

 sometimes actually imitated the example of Anobium, 

 and bored into wood, feeding on the timber as they 

 advanced. 



