Uq, J J Further Notes. 47 



12.— DERMESTES VULPINUS, Fabr. » 



Plate IV, fig, 2, a larva {dorsal view), b larva {side view), c pupa, d imago ; all enlarged ; 



fig. 2, e imago {nat, size). 



Some specimens of Dermestes vulpinus, the leather beetle of America, 

 have recently been sent to the Indian Museum by Mr. J. Cleg-horn, of 

 Rajshahye, who says that the larvse attack eggs, worms, chrysalids and 

 moths of the mulberry silkworm. During the rains cocoons having often 

 to be reeled off, on account of damage done by this insect, within a fort- 

 night of having been received, instead of being allowed to ripen as in 

 the hot weather. The cocoons are thereby depreciated in value, some- 

 times to the extent of R12 per maund. Mr. Cleghorn has observed that 

 the insects are most abundant during the rains, their numbers diminish- 

 ing during the months between October and May, though causing loss 

 of produce even during these months. He has seen the beetles flying at 

 dusk into the house, and making straight for where cocoons are stored, 

 selecting, in the first instance, ones that contain putrefying chrysalids, 

 but also attacking sound ones ; he has also found large numbers of the 

 beetles drowned in water containing putrid matter. 



The larvae work their way readily through the substance of the silk 

 cocoon to get at the enclosed chrysalid which they devour, and appear to 

 thrive indifferently on any animal matter, having taken with much relish 

 to a series of dead insects with which they have been fed in the Mu- 

 seum. 



In the Indian Museum collections are images of this species 

 from the Hazaribagh district (Wood-Mason), where they are said to 

 attack stored tusser cocoons, also from Calcutta, Madras (Elliot), Naga 

 Hills (God win- Austen), Deccan (Sykes), Bhutan (Pemberton), Muscat 

 (Blanford), Nicobar Islands (de Roepstorff), South Australia (Wilson) 

 New Zealand (Brown). The insect is, in fact, cosmopolitan. 



The following notes on the history of the insect in other places 

 are appended, in the hope that they may provoke discussion, and lead to 

 the publication of suggestions by practical men for dealing with it as an 

 enemy to the silk industry out here. 



So long ago as 1839 West wood, in his Modern Classification of 

 Insects, wrote that Dermestes vulpiniis occurred throughout Europe and 

 America, and also in Java; that it had at one time done so much 

 damage in skin warehouses in London that a reward of £20,000 was 

 offered for an available remedy, without, however, any being discovered, 

 and that an entire cargo of cork had been destroyed by it, the insects also 

 damaging the timbers of the ship. 



^ This note was originally published in the ** Asian." The figures are copied from Dr. 

 Riley's plate in the Report of the Entomologist to the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, for the year 1885. 



