508 THE MICROSCOPE. 



straight line, by this insect. The beetle is very small, and 

 almost black. The head is particularly small; and from 

 the prominence of the thorax, looks as 

 if it were covered with a hood. The 

 Anobium puniceum, fig. 2 63, attacks dried 

 objects of natural history, and all kinds 

 of bread and biscuits, particularly sailors' 

 biscuits, in which maggots frequently 

 abound. In collections of insects, it first 

 consumes the interior; when the larva 

 assails birds, it is generally the feet that 

 it devours first; and in plants, the stem. 

 Fig. 263. Anobium pu- or woody part. The larva, a small white 



mceum, magnified. . *li i i r 1-1. -111 



maggot the body of which is wrinkled, 

 and consists of several segments covered with fine 

 hairs; its jaws are strong and horny, and of a dark 

 brown. The body is white, and so transparent, that every 

 part of the perfect insect can be seen through it. The 

 beetle itself is of a reddish-brown colour, covered with 

 fine hairs. 



The Bacon-beetle (Dermestes lardarius) is another of 

 this destructive beetle family. The larva of this beetle is 

 particularly partial to the skin 

 of any animal that may fall in 

 its way; consequently it de- 

 stroys stuffed animals and birds 

 in collections of natural history, 

 whenever it can gain access to 

 them. It attacks hams and 

 bacon for the skin's sake; and 

 Fig. 264. Dermestes lardarius. being a very glutton, extend s its 



Larva, pupa, and imago. ravages to the flesh. This Mrva 



is long and slender, its body nearly round, and is divided 

 into thirteen segments, of a blackish-brown in the middle, 

 and white at the edge ; the whole being furnished with 

 bristle-shaped reddish-brown hairs. 



The beetle is black about the head and tail, with an 

 ash-grey band across the back, having three black spots 

 on each wing-case. Sometimes this band takes a yellowish 

 tinge, and then the hairs, which are here disposed in tufts, 

 are likewise of a yellowish-grey colour. The beetle is 



