590 



F A M I LY XXI V. DER MESTID.E . 



II. Dermestes Linn. 1767. (Gr., " skin + devour.") 



Oblong or elongate black or piceous species having the front 

 coxa? contiguous; head capable of retraction within the thorax; an 

 tennag 11- jointed with a 3- join ted club; body clothed with short 

 hairs. On the carcasses of dead animals, after the soft parts have 

 been devoured by other scavengers and only the bones and skin re- 

 main, they can usually be found in numbers; while one or two are 

 common household pests, found about refuse lard, bacon, feathers 

 and cheese. Five species have been taken in Indiana, while another 

 doubtless occurs. 



KEY TO INDIANA SPECIES OF DERMESTES. 



a. Abdomen thickly covered with long whitish pubescence and with a row 

 of black spots on each side ; front portions of side margins of thorax 

 not visible from above. 

 6. Pubescence of thorax densely covering the entire surface, variegated 

 with small spots of black, gray and reddish-brown. 

 c. Thorax with three small, widely separated spots of pale pubes- 

 cence, arranged transversely at about the middle of its lengfh ; 

 form more robust ; pubescence of scutellum not conspicuously 

 pale. 1124. canintjs. 



cc. Thorax without the three pale pubescent spots ; form more slender 

 and parallel ; pubescence of scutellum dull yellow. 



1125. TALPIXUS. 



1)1). Pubescence of thorax gray and limited to the margins, the disk with 

 a large triangular, nearly smooth spot, black. 1126. vulpixus. 

 aa. Abdomen without whitish pubescence or rows of black spots; side mar- 

 gins of thorax entirely visible from above. 

 (1. Thorax and basal fifth of elytra covered with uniform reddish-brown 

 pubescence ; abdomen reddish-brown. 1127. puecher. 



del. Thorax without trace of reddish pubescence; abdomen black. 



c. Basal two-fifths of each elytron grayish-yellow, enclosing three 

 black spots. 1128. lardarius. 



ee. Elytra black, sparsely and uniformly clothed with paler pubescence, 

 and with feeble but visible stria?; body subeylindrical. 



ELONGATUS. 



*1124 (3420). Dermestes caninus Germ.. Ins. Spec. Nov.. 1S24, 84. 



Elongate-oblong. Thorax with dense, variegated pubescence; elytra 

 black, mottled, especially on basal half, with fine black and coarse gray 

 pubescence, the latter often covering the greater part of the surface ; middle 

 and hind femora with rings of white pubescence. Male with a median pit 

 on the third and fourth ventral segments, from which arises a bunch of 

 erect brown hairs. Length 7-S.2 mm. 



Throughout the State; frequent. January 6-Oetober 20. Hi- 

 bernates. Gregarious in winter beneath mullein leaves, bark and 

 logs. 



