550 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



its destructive work, it is a plump white caterpillar provided with strong 

 mandibles and sixteen legs. It nips the fiber, beginning as soon as 

 hatched from the egg, and builds a case which is enlarged as the insect 

 grows. These insects are known to travel in search of other quarters; 

 they are very hard to kill, extreme cold does not affect them, and many 

 of the domestic preventives, such as camphor, tobacco, etc., entirely fail 

 to destroy them. 



All articles subject to injury from these moths should be often exam- 

 ined and shaken, especially in spring and early summer, to dislodge 

 the eggs. 



Another very serious pest is the " buffalo bug " (Anthrenus lepidus 

 Linn.), and its relative the "carpet bug" (A. varius Fabr.). The adult 

 is a small round sluggish beetle, brown, with white or variegated scales 

 on the wing covers. The larvae are short, plump worms with numer- 

 ous stiff, brown hairs. This insect is on the increase ; its ravages seem 

 to have attracted the notice of the public, and much was written about 

 it a few years ago, in 1882 and 1883. Like the tinea larva, the buffalo- 

 bug larva cuts leather, woolen, or fur, and builds an incoherent case 

 from the fragments. These insects multiply very rapidly, and are also 

 unaffected by ordinary insect preventives. 



The larvse of the "basket beetle" (Sitodrepa panicea Linn.) are small 

 worm -like creatures with six minute feet. They are furnished with 

 strong cutting-jaws by means of which they eat their way into basketry 

 and old wood, or similar substances, boring little holes as round as if 

 made with a fine drill. The adult insect is a little, sluggish, brown 

 beetle which simulates death on being disturbed. 



Another insect, the subject of a letter to Science, May 28, 1886, and 

 there called "A New Museum Pest," is the "silver fish" (Lepisma domes- 

 tica). The adult is a shining fish-shaped insect, wingless, but very quick 

 in its movements. It prefers starch for food, and attacks everything 

 that contains that substance, such as labels pasted or sized with starch 

 or mucilage, cotton or linen laundered goods, etc. This insect is ex- 

 tremely obnoxious to librarians, being attracted by the paste used in 

 binding books. 



Other insects are often introduced into the Museum on specimens and 

 by other means, but these are of less consequence, as they do not breed 

 there and are usually not harmful. 



It has been thought well to introduce here a paper by Mr. John B. 

 Smith, assistant curator of entomology in the Museum, relating to the 

 care of insect collections. It was published in the Proceedings of the 

 Entomological Society of Washington*,* under the title "Some Observa- 

 tions on Museum Pests." 



One of the duties of a person in charge of a large collection of insects is keeping 

 out museum pests, as the various species that feed on the dried insects are generically 

 called. In a large collection, like that of the National Museum, no inconsiderable 



"Vol. I, No. 2, p. 113. 



