62 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



indicated in the figure. It is readily distinguished from Anthrenus 

 scrojyhularue. Its natural history has not been studied in detail, but 

 there is little doubt that it is similar to that of the other species. It 

 seems to have a particular predilection for feathers and has several 

 times been observed to i)rodace in feather beds a peculiar felting of the 

 ticking. It has also been known to infest flour mills and is to a certain 

 extent a feeder upon cereal products. It is a museum pest of consid- 

 erable imi^ortance, and, in fact, when first discovered in connection 

 with the Anthrenus, by Dr. Lintner, it was supposed to be present 

 around the margin of carpets simply in search of dead flies and other 

 animal matter, such as cast skins of Anthrenus, etc. In 1878 Dr. Ilagen 

 stated in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History that 

 during late years this insect had propagated to a fearful extent in many 

 houses in Cambridge, and that he believed it to be responsible for fully 

 half of all the destruction ascribed to the i^revioiis species. In the 

 arranged collection of the Museum of Oomi)arative Zoology it occurred 

 only rarely, and Dr. Ilagen always found a crack or a slit in the infested 

 box through which the thin and slender young larva had entei^d. The 

 insect, he said, could always be recognized by the small, globular, ocher- 

 ous excrement. Mr. Schwarz, writing in 1890, spoke of the recent 

 increase in numbers of this insect in Washington, D. C. As a museum 

 l^est he had found it frequently in insect boxes which were not quite 

 tight, but, fortunately, this species does not seem to be able to enter 

 through as small a crack as Anthrenus or Trogoderma. In January, 

 1892, Mrs. Horace French, of Elgin, Kane County, 111., wrote us that 

 many iiouses in Elgin were infested both by this species and by the 

 buffalo carpet beetle. The black carpet beetle, however, seemed, accord- 

 ing to the correspondent, to work constantly through the year, unmind- 

 ful of change of temperature, while the other species did little damage 

 excei^t during the warmer months. Her own house was completely 

 overrun, and after taking up the carpets and discovering the full extent 

 of their ravages it was deemed unsafe to replace them. 



Until recently we had made but one attempt to follow out the detailed 

 life history. This was in June, 1882, when the beetle seemed to be 

 especially numerous, flying into the open windows of the office. A num- 

 ber were placed June 20 in a jar with pieces of rag. On June 23 six 

 eggs were found to have been deposited, three of which were already 

 much shriveled, ai^i^arently not fertilized. The color of the eggs was 

 white and they were extremely soft and of broad oval shape, with irreg- 

 ular striate sculpturing, like the markings on the palm of one's hand. 

 No further eggs were deposited and those previously laid did not hatch. 



Quite recently, in the course of his studies of insects injurious to 

 stored food, Mr. Chittenden, of this office, has many times met with 

 the larva of this species in seeds and other vegetable products in the 

 museum of the Department. He has shown that the larva will breed 

 successfully from the e,gg in flour and meal. Incidentally, he observed 



