CLASSIFICATION OF THE DERMESTIDAE 6 



are available and the species may again be encountered in the field, 

 therefore it is considered in the present work. Also included are a 

 few exotic species contained in the larval collection of the United 

 States National Museum. 



The identifications of the species studied were checked as closely 

 as possible, and only larvae definitely associated with adults or from 

 which adults were reared were used. The identifications of the reared 

 material and associated adults were made or rechecked by H. S. 

 Barber, Division of Insect Identification, Bureau of Entomology and 

 Plant Quarantine. 



SUBFAMILY AND GENERIC RELATIONSHIPS 



Various classifications of the Dermestidae have been presented by 

 different students of this family, some working on the adult insects, 

 others on the larvae. If a fundamentally sound classification of the 

 family is to be developed it is apparent that careful consideration 

 should be given to evidence derived from studies of both adult and 

 immature stages, and the possibility of a reclassification should be 

 considered whenever differences are encountered. 



According to Boving and Craighead (i), the family Dermestidae 

 contains two subfamilies — Dermestinae, composed only of the genus 

 Dermestes L., and Attageninae, which includes Thylodriinae, Atta- 

 genini, Megatomini, Anthrenini, Trinodini, and Orphilini, as cata- 

 logued by Leng. This classification is based on the presence or absence 

 of the urogomphi, the presence or absence of a stiff process (retinac- 

 ulum) and a basal setal brush on the mandible, and whether the sub- 

 mentum and gula are fused. By retaining some of these characters 

 and introducing others, such as the differences in the disposition of 

 the pubescence, the ornamentation of the epipharynx, and the number 

 of segments of the different appendages, Lepesme and Paulian (7) 

 maintain that the subfamily Attageninae of Boving and Craighead 

 groups together heterogeneous forms. They, therefore, propose to 

 classify the Dermestidae into five subfamilies: Dermestinae, Thylo- 

 driinae, Trinodinae, Attageninae, and Anthreninae, the last of which 

 comprises the two tribes Anthrenini and Megatomini. 



Although the classification presented in this paper agrees somewhat 

 with that proposed by Lepesme and Paulian, it was not reached in 

 the same manner, new characters and different interpretations of char- 

 acters being followed. With the exception of the Orphilini of Leng, 

 the larvae of which were not available for study, the classification is 

 based on larval characters considered distinctive enough to separate 

 the members of this family into the following groups : Dermestinae, 

 Attageninae, Trinodinae, Thylodriinae, and Anthreninae, the last of 

 which consists of the tribes Megatomini, Anthrenini, and, as proposed 

 in this paper, Ctesiini. 



The subfamily Dermestinae (fig. 1, A ; see p. 14) is formed by 

 the single genus Dermestes, the larvae of which possess a pair of uro- 

 gomphi on the ninth abdominal segment (fig. 2, H) , a sclerotized and 

 pigmented ring completely encircling the tenth segment, the use of 

 this segment as a pygopod, long, coarse, spinulate setae some of which 

 are in eight oblique series arranged transversally across the abdom- 

 inal tergites (fig. 3, /), retrorse tubercles in the last larval stage of 



