S COMMON BRITISH INSECTS. 



dangerous arsenical soap in their preparations, and it 

 has been the means of depriving many a hard-work- 

 ing man of his best teeth, the arsenic loosening them 

 so that they fall out almost at a touch. Full many a 

 valuable museum has been utterly ruined by these 

 destructive Beetles, which, even when the skin is 

 poisoned with arsenical soap, will attack the hair or 

 the feathers, and strip the creature as bare as if it had 

 been shaved. 



This family is distinguished by their short, straight, 

 and doubled antennae, their small and retractile head, 

 the five-jointed tarsi, and the length of the elytra, 

 which cover the abdomen. The palpi are thread-like 

 and shorter than the maxillae, and the first joint of 

 the tarsus is shorter than the second. For illustration 

 of this genus I have selected the well-known BACON 

 BEETLE (Dermestes lardarius). 



This is really a pretty, though not gaily coloured, 

 Beetle, its body being black and its elytra having a 

 very broad greyish band across the base, on which are 

 three black or pitchy spots. On examination with 

 a lens, the band is seen to be composed of a short but 

 thick grey down, the black spots being simply places 

 on which the down does not grow, so that the black 

 of the elytra is rendered visible. 



This Beetle may be found plentifully in the 

 ' keepers' trees ' which have already been mentioned ; 

 and even after the animals have been so dried by 

 exposure that their skins are as hard as horn, the 

 Dermestes will attack them, its sharp teeth enabling 

 it to overcome the hardened skin. The chief havoc 



