Skin beetle

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iSkin beetles

Anthrenus verbasci

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Infraorder:	Bostrichiformia
Superfamily:	Bostrichoidea
Family:	Dermestidae Latreille, 1804

Genera

many, see text

Wikispecies has information related to:

Skin beetle

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," "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 femurs 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.

The grub of a larder beetle, (Dermestes lardarius)

Dermestidae damage to a Manduca quinquemaculata in an insect collection

[edit] 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.