GEORYSSID^. 



449 



with long bristles, which are largest on the end of the body. 

 They are generally destructive in museums, and prey on stuffed 

 specimens of all sorts. The beetles fly about early in spring 

 and then lay their eggs. The insect is found in all its stages 

 through the year. They may be killed like the Clothes-moth, 

 also found in museums, by saturating the specimen infested 

 by them with benzine. To pre- 

 vent their attacks, they should 

 be kept out of collections b^^ 

 keeping benzine in constant 

 evaporation in open vessels. 

 Camphor and turpentine and 

 creosote are also very useful. 

 Insects recently prepared should 

 be placed in quarantine, so we may be sure none of the mu- 

 seum pests will be introduced into the drawers or cases of the 

 cabinet while either in the egg or larva state. Their presence 

 in cabinets may be detected by the dust they make falling on 

 the white surface beneath. Specimens thoroughly impregnated 

 with carbolic acid, or arsenic, or corrosive sublimate, will not 

 be attacked by them. 



Fig. 398. 



Byrrhid^e Leach. Pill Beetles. This group has the head 

 retracted under the thorax, with the parts of the mouth more 

 or less protected by the prosternum ; the legs are short, stout 

 and retractile, and the antennae are clavate. The typi- 

 cal species are "oval or rounded, verj'^ convex, dull 

 black or bronzed insects, covered with a fine, easily 

 removed pubescence, forming varied patterns." In 

 Byrrhus all the tarsi are retractile. We have taken 

 Byrrkus Americanus Lee. in Labrador, on the stems 

 of the "Labrador tea." They are found in cold 

 mountainous districts. The larvae (Fig. 399, larva 

 of B. pillula Illiger, a European species found in moss) are 

 fleshy, cylindrical, with the last two rings of the hody larger 

 than the others. 



Geortssid.^ Heer. This family consists of but a single 

 genus, characterized by Leconte as comprising small, rounded, 

 29 



