AGRICULTURAL fiXPERIMENT STATION. 



117 



beneficial beetle (a lady bug) was mistaken for the buffalo carpet 

 beetle. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Eggs — We find no description of the eggs in any work at hand 

 and have no specimens to examine. They must be very small, and 

 the belief is that they are laid by the female on the carpet or cloth- 

 ing attacked and not in the cracks of the floor, as some suppose. 



Larva — The full grown larva is about a quarter of an inch long,, 

 dark brown and clothed with stiff brown hairs which are longer on 



Fig. 10. 

 the sides than on the back and still longer on the extremities. 

 These hairs form tufts at the sides and extremeties. The 

 posterior end bears three tufts of long hairs and the head a 

 bunch of shorter ones. Fig. A shows the back view of the larva 

 much enlarged, the real size being shown by the hair line at the 

 right. Fig. B shows the under side enlarged. 



Pupa. — It is sbown in Fig. c, enlarged. The real size being 

 shown by the hair line at the left. It is brown in color and is the 

 quiescent stage in the life history of the insect between the larva 

 and the perfect beetle. The larva moults six times at least in 

 coming to maturity, and finally the pupa is formed in the last larval 

 skin, and after a time this larval skin splits open along the back, 

 revealing the pupa from which later the full grown beetle emerges. 

 The cast-off larval skins are usually found in abundance, giving 

 the impression of a greater number of the pest than really exists. 

 The larva are very tenacious of life and will go a long time without 

 food. We kept some one time in a tin box for nearly a month 

 without food, and they were still alive. When deprived of food 

 the growth is slow and the moults more numerous. It is the larva 

 that does the mischief. 



