What's Eating Your Collection?

Hide or leather beetle Dermestes maculatus

Adult beetle

Size: 10mm or over

Shape: Oval

Colour: shiny black with white hairs on thorax

Antennae: short, 3 segmented club

Distinguishing features: underside covered in patches of white hairs

Adults eat: very little

Larvae are pests of: dried animal protein, rare in houses and museums.Sometimes used in Natural History Museums to clean skeletons. 

Damage is: occasionally tunnels for pupation

Often found: associated with dead rodents and birds in houses. It is also a pest in chicken houses, where it lives in the manure.

Hide or leather beetle Dermestes maculatus

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