448 COLEOPTERA. 



anterior pair in the males having but three joints ; the frontal 

 suture is always distinct and usually deep ; the eyes are trans- 

 verse and the antennae gradually enlarged externally. 



DERMESTID^E Leach. These well known insects have the 

 head small and deflexed, with short mandibles, rounded eyes, 

 with a single ocellus ; the prothorax is short, sometimes exca- 

 vated for the reception of the antenna, which are in- 

 serted in front of the eyes and are usually eleven-jointed, 

 and the legs are short, somewhat contractile, the tar>i 

 being five-jointed. In Byturus the mandibles have sev- 

 eral teeth, and the claws are armed with a large basal 

 Fig. 3%. tooth. They are small oval brown beetles found eating 

 flowers. Mr. J. L. Russell of Salem, has called my attention 

 to the ravages committed by B. unicolor Say on the raspberry ; 

 it eats the flowers, being most abundant during June, and for 

 two or three summers has been very abundant. Hand picking 

 was found to be the best remedy. Every entomologist dreads 

 the presence of Dermestes and Anthrenus in his cabinet. 

 The ugly, bristly, insidious larva, which so skilfully hides 

 in the body whose interior it consumes, leaving only 

 the shell ready to fall to pieces at the slightest jar, can 

 be kept out only with the greatest precautions. Der- 

 mestes lardarius Linn., the larger of the two, is oblong 

 oval, with short legs, black, with the base of the elytra 

 gray buff, covered by two broad lines. It is timid and 

 . slow in its movements, and when disturbed seeks a 

 shelter, or mimics death. We have found the larva (Fig. 

 396) of probably another species of Dermestes, crawling up 

 the side of an out-house. It was nearly twice the size of 

 D. lardarius. Attagenus pellio Stephens is another insect 

 which infests museums. It is shorter than Dermestes, black, 

 with two dots on the wing covers. The larva (Fig. 397, en- 

 larged three times) is long and slender, cylindrical, with red- 

 dish brown hairs closely appressed to the body, giving it a 

 silky, shining appearance. The abdomen ends in a long pen- 

 cil of hairs. It has been known to eat holes in carpets. 



Anthrenus r/o-///x Fal>r. (Fig. 398; a, larva; 6, pupa) is 

 rounded oval, with transverse waved lines. Its larva is thick, 



