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The 'skin beetles' or 'Dermestidae' (Gyllenhaal 1808) are a beetle family. The family includes about 700 species found worldwide. The common names "carpet beetle", "larder beetle", "bacon beetle", "museum beetle", or "bow bug" apply more specifically to some of the sub-groups of this family.
They are generally of a compact or round shape, ranging in size from 1 to 12 mm, and of a dark overall color; most are densely covered with scales or setae, some with patterns of white, yellow, red, or brown. The (usually) clubbed antennae fit into deep grooves. The hind femora also fit into recesses of the coxa.
Dermestids have a variety of habits; most genera are scavengers that feed on dry animal or plant material such as skin or pollen. Members of ''Dermestes'' are found in animal carcasses, while others may be found in mammal, bird, bee, or wasp nests.
They are used in natural history museums to clean animal skeletons. Some dermestid species, commonly called "bow bugs," infest violin cases, feeding on the bow hair.
''Thaumaglossa'' only lives in the egg cases of mantids, while ''Trogoderma'' species are pests of grain.

Contents

Important works

External links

References

Important works

Identification

★ Hinton, H.E., 1945 ''A monograph of the beetles associated with stored products''. 1, 387-395 British Museum (Natural History), London.Keys to world adults and larvae,genera and species;excellent figures, full species information.

★ Freude, H.; Harde, K.W.; Lohse, G.A., 1979 ''Dermestidae''. ''Die Käfer Mitteleuropas'' 6: Diversicornia (Lycidae — Byrrhidae) 1206 text figs. 367pp. Goecke & Evers. Text in German, the Dermestidae are on pages 304–327.

External links

★ Dermestidae-Literature

★ Russian Atlas of Carpet Beetles-excellent images

★ Dermestidae website

★ USDA Leaflet on Carpet beetles

References

★ John M. Kingsolver, "Dermestidae", in Ross H. Arnett, Jr. and Michael C. Thomas, ''American Beetles'' (CRC Press, 2002), vol. 2.

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