Spider beetle
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Description
A large family (Ptinidae) of over 500 insects in the order Coleoptera. Spider beetles have round-shaped, wingless bodies with long, thin legs. The reddish-brown to black beetles range in size from 1-5 mm. These ubiquitous insects feed on plant and animal remains, stored food products, dry wood, and museum specimens. First mentioned by Linnaeus in 1766, spider beetles can cause severe damage to books, leather, and ethnographic collections. The white-marked spider beetle (Ptinus fur) and the shiny American spider beetle (Mezium americanum) are are found throughout North America.
Synonyms and Related Terms
Ptinus fur; Mezium americanum
Resources and Citations
- MuseumPest.net at Link
- Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982
- Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com Comment: "spider beetle" [Accessed November 5, 2002].