Biological Notes

Abstract

MUSEUM PESTS IN ENTOMOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS.—Every record of successful contests with destroying agencies in museums will be of interest to collectors, and useful hints as well as valuable data in natural history may be derived from accounts of the animal species which appear in museums in widely separated localities. Very little information is as yet in print concerning museum pests in America, and Dr. H. A. Hagen has rendered a service to science by relating his experiences in the entomological collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, U.S. (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1878, p. 56). He found Dermestes lardarius very abundant at first, but as it was easily recognisable it was soon extirpated. The excrements of the larva are large, granulous, and jet black. A much more dangerous foe is the larva of Attagenus megatoma (family Dermes-tidæ), having small globular ochreous excrements. Dr. Hagen was always able to find the crack in the box, through which the very thin and slender young larva entered. Anthrenus (same family) is represented by three species, of which the commonest in Europe (A. museorum) is very rare in Cambridge. A. varius, rare in Europe, is the most common pest in the collection, especially in new additions. A. scrophulariœ, the “carpet bug,” has only been known to Dr. Hagen since 1872 in New England, and later still as a museum pest. It has since become very abundant and dangerous. The excrements consist of very fine light brown globules. Ptinus furt so common in Europe, very seldom attacks the insects at Cambridge. Tribolium ferrugineum was imported from the East Indies. The flat body of the larva, as well as of the beetle, made it particularly fit to enter boxes through the smallest crack. It was got under by the aid of tobacco-smoke. The common clothes-moth was found very dangerous, and taught Dr. Hagen the lesson of placing every spreading-board at once in a tightly-closing box. Several years ago Dr. Hagen inclosed some clothes-moths with rotten insects in a glass-stoppered bottle, where they propagated year after year. In the fourth year the moths were noticed to be visibly smaller, and in the sixth most of them were scarcely half the ordinary size. But among them were always one or two of the normal stature. Nothing had been added to their food in these years. Two injurious species of Psocus, which are much attracted by paste and glue, do not infest Dr. Hagen's boxes, which are not lined with paper. Further, every spreading-board is carefully cleaned, and the cracks washed with alcohol before use. Acari have been easily kept out. Dr. Hagen strongly urges the entire separation of entomological rooms from those containing other preserved animals, especially mammals, birds, and skeletons. Having well-closing boxes, and never putting anything into the collection before it is safe, are the only satisfactory precautions. All other recommendations are but a poor substitute for bad boxes.