302 Forty-sixth Report on the State Museum 



Ignorance Respecting the Carpet Beetles. 



Almost every newspaper published in the United States has contained 

 some account of the dreadful " carpet beetle " or " buffalo bug," giving 

 its habits, describing its appearance, often accompanied by figures rep- 

 resenting its different stages; still, there are many who are not able 

 to distinguish it from a harmless lady-bug when they find the two in 

 intimate association in rooms where carpets and clothing are evidently 

 suffering from " carpet bug " attack. 



The following letter, from Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in which this ignor- 

 ance is displayed, is one of many of a similar tenor: 



I herewith send jou a small vial containing what is believed to be the 

 carpet-bug in two, perhaps three, forms of its existence. The creature 

 is giving us much trouble and injuring valuable property. If you can 

 aid in identifying the animal, and in stopping its ravages, you will con- 

 fer a great favor on many sufferers. 



The little lady-bug has been found in great numbers about our dwell- 

 ings, and in such relation to injured carpets, etc., as to create the belief 

 that it is the veritable carpet-bug; but if I am right in supposing that 

 the insect I send you is the " real. Simon-pure " little pest, then the pet 

 lady-bug has been more " sinned against than sinning." E. L. B. 



Larval features of the two Insects. 



The vial contained a specimen of the veritable carpet bug, which 

 has become such a formidable household pest, but in its larval stage 

 only — not in subsequent forms of its existence. In company with 

 it was another larva and two perfect beetles. The larva of the obnox- 

 ious Anthrenus scrophularim was the one of an oval form, and clothed 

 with stiff bristles standing out from it. It has received (perhaps 

 in California, w^here it first became known in this country,) the name 

 of the " buffalo-bug," from a fancied resemblance in its large and hairy 

 front, to that animal. 



The other larval form — of a reddish-brown color, with appressed 

 hairs — long, slender, tapering to its tail, and ending in a pencil of 

 hairs, — is also a carpet-bug, and the earlier stage of the two black 

 beetles which were sent with it. It was for a long time known 

 to science as Attagenus megatoma (Fabr.), but a few years since was 

 found to have been earlier described by Olivier under the specific 

 name of piceus. 



Attagenus piceus detected as a Carpet pest. 

 At the time of my detection of the Anthrenus carpet bug at Schenec- 

 tady, the larva of A. piceics was associated with it. It was at first 

 supposed that it was drawn to the borders of carpets to feed upon the 

 dead bodies of flies and other insects that collected there, in accord- 



