624 THE MICROSCOPE. 



through it. The beetle itself is of a reddish-brown 



colour, covered with fine hairs. 



The Bacon -beetle [Dermestes lardarius) is another of 



the 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- 



tstroys stuffed animals and birds 

 in collections of natural his- 

 tory, whenever it can gain ac- 

 cess to them. It attacks hams 

 and bacon for the skin's sake ; 



Fig. 283.— Dermestes lardarius. and, being a very glutton, ex- 

 Larva, pupa, and imago. tendg itsravages tQ the flesh# 



This larva 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 fur- 

 nished with bristle-shaped reddish-brown hairs. 



The Dermestidce belong to the family of Necrophagous 

 beetles, six genera of which have been found in Great 

 Britain. The D. lardarius 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 dis- 

 posed in tufts, are likewise of a yellowish-grey colour. 

 The beetle is most destructive in spring. The larvae, like 

 those of the clothes moths, are but seldom seen, being 

 careful to conceal themselves in the bodies they attack, 

 and their presence can only be guessed at by finding 

 occasionally their cast-off skins, which they change several 

 times during their larvae state. Specimens of hair put 

 up by the mounters and labelled " Hair of Dermestes," 

 do not belong to the species at all. These hairs, long 

 favourite objects with microscopists, and placed by them 

 among test-objects, may, it is believed, be those found in 

 tufts at the extremity of the body of Anthrenus muse- 

 orum. Westwood says that the larvae of these beetles 

 are furnished with tufts of hairs, which are " individually 

 formed of a series of minute conical pieces placed in suc- 

 cession, the base being very slender, and the extremity 

 a large oblong knot, placed on a slender footstalk." This 



