The Mouth-Parts of the Larval and Adult Stages of Dermestes Vulpinus F.*

Abstract

The cosmopolitan species, Dermestes vulpinus Fabricius has long been considered an insect of economic importance. At one time it committed such ravages upon furs of the Hudson's Bay Company in its storehouses in London that a reward of 200,000 Pounds was offered for a means of effectually destroying it (Lintner, 1884). Since that time it has been reported destroying hides and leather in many different countries. Distant (1877) told of a cargo of dried hides received in London from China which had suffered damage from its ravages as great as l5 to 20 percent of the value. Jones (1889) gave an account of the hide beetle found at work in goat skins from Russia, Arabia, Mexico, Turkey, and Cape Town, South Africa. Its activities are well known in the tanneries and shoe factories of our own country (Riley, 1886), (Lintner, 1887). Illingworth (1918) stated that D. vulpinus F. was the principal cause of injury to the dried fish in Honolulu. Kimura and Takakura (1919) reported its ravages of the dried fish in Japan. As early as 1837 it was recorded as destroying a cargo of cork brought to England from Brazil (Bowerbank, 1837). Holland (1896) reported a loss of 2 percent of a shipment of cork from Spain, due to its ravages. Snyder (1920) described “one of the most serious cases of direct injury to metal by insects—that by D. vulpinus F. to tubular lead telephone fuses.” The insect eats through the lead (alloy) tape of the fuses. It has also earned the title of “bone beetle” from its frequent infestations of bones wherever they are stored in large quantities. They feed on the dirty bones and then bore into the framework of the storage buildings to pupate. Walker (1884) reported a case at Queensborough, England, where the wooden framework of a storage room in a bone-boiling works was destroyed by their honey-combing activities. Potter (1898) reported similar ravages in New Zealand. The hide beetle was found in great numbers in the hoof-drying room and the bone-fertilizer store rooms of a packing plant in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the larvae have honey-combed areas in the wooden framework as large as a foot square and one to two inches deep.