COLEOPTERA. 473 
The Claviger foveolatus (Fig. 468) is met with in the nest of a 
little russety ant, which takes as much care of it as of its own 
progeny, because the Claviger secretes a liquid very much 
appreciated by ants, who are continually occupied in licking its 
back. 
The Dermestide attack by preference the tendons and the 
skins of carcasses. A few of the insects of this family are the 

Fig. 469.—Bacon Beetle (Dermestes lardarius), magnified and natural size. 
plague of our collections and the furriers. They devour a 
quantity of dry substances—skins, feathers, catgut, hair, shell- 
work, the dried bodies of insects, &c. Some other Dermestide feed 
on animal matter still fresh: such is the Bacon beetle, Dermestes 
lardarius (Fig. 469), which is to be met with in some dirty pork- 
shops. It is black, with the base of its elytra tawny and marked 
with three black spots. The larve are covered with a russety 

Fig. 470.—Attagenus pellio, magnified and natural size, 
hair; they eat bacon, skins, and also attack each other. The 
perfect insect does no damage. Like all the Dermestide, it 
counterfeits death when handled. The Dermestes vulpinus, of a 
tawny grey, injures furs, and the Hudson’s Bay Company, 
whose storehouses in London were infested by this insect, offered 
a reward of £20,000 for a means of destroying this insect. 
The furriers have cause also to dread the Attagenus pellio (Fig. 470), 

