28 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



#s being engaged in fur-hunting. The name "pellio," 

 which is Latin for a " furrier " a preserver of and 

 dealer in furs is somewhat contradictorily given to 

 this destroyer of such wares. Linne, who says that it 

 will sometimes entirely strip a fur garment of its hair, 

 accuses it also of attacking the household stores of food, 

 and, besides this, it is occasionally a nuisance in Natural 

 History collections, and has sometimes eaten holes in 

 carpets. Its larva is closely covered with reddish-brown 

 hairs, which give it a shining silky appearance, and it 

 has a long brush of hairs at the tail. 



Our la,4t representative of this family is a much smaller 

 insect, which has nevertheless rendered itself notorious 

 by its invasion of museums a fact, the 

 memory of which has been perpetuated 

 in the second half of its name, Antlirenus 

 musceorum (Fig. 12). It is a short oval 

 insect, about one-twelfth of an inch long, 

 prettily sprinkled with variegated scales, 

 FIG. 12. Anthrenus which give it a mottled appearance, the 



musseorum, as it . : A 



appears when pale ones on the elytra being distributed 



feigning death. . / fc 



in three more or less distinct, irregular, 

 transverse bands. The scales are pretty objects for the 

 microscope. They are triangular in shape, and, of course, 

 attached by the apex of the triangle, and their principal 

 colours a very deep brown and pale yellowish-white. On 

 their removal, the whole insect appears black. 



In the power of feigning death, by bending the head 

 under and packing up the legs, this insect is quite equal 

 to the most obstinate of its allies. The larva is hairy, 

 like that of Dermestes, but, of course, much smaller. 

 Its hairs are in bundles, and at its tail are a pair of 

 tufts of larger size ; when it is at rest these two are laid 

 along the back, but when disturbed it erects them/^and 



