Hide beetle

Hide Beetle

Description

A beetle, Dermestes maculatus, with a black back with a thin border of white hairs and a white abdomen with black spots. The hide beetle larvae eat bones, carcasses, wool, wood, cork, and insulation. The adult insects are about 9 to 10 millimeters long. They lay eggs that hatch in 2 to 4 days. The larvae have a black body with broad band in the center of its back. It grows in length to 12 mm. The larval stage lasts 35 to 238 days at which point a cocoon is formed. The adult hatches in 3 to 300 days and lives up to 3 months. The hide beetle is one of two species (the other is the black larder beetle) formerly used to clean bones in museums.

Hide beetle (Dermestes maculatus)

Synonyms and Related Terms

skin beetle

Additional Information

º MuseumPests.net: Hide Beetle

Authority

• Lynda A. Zycherman, J.Richard Schrock, A Guide to Museum Pest Control, FAIC and Association of Systematics Collections, Washington DC, 1988

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_beetle