View allAll Photos Tagged carpetbeetle
The name seems to be appropriate, since scales on the wing covers look like a woven tapestry under magnification. The source of the name is however different: one of the food sources for the larvae is carpets made of natural fibres. Also, as Beppe Miceli writes in the comments below, this beetle can cause great damage to insect collections, e.g. in museums. This is a very fresh individual, with all the scales intact. These wear off as the insects get older.
A Varied Carpet Beetle. This little guy was about 4mm long, a little less than 1/6 of an inch. Photographed in Maryland. 5/4/21.
a red beetle on the yellow center of a white daisy with two carpet beetles on each side of the daisy denter
Kind of like a tightrope walker, this tiny gray bug was moving along the top of an unfolding hibiscus petal. It turned out to be a little beetle, apparently a "variegated carpet beetle." I don't know about the garden, but apparently we really don't want them to get into the house...
So tiny at just 2 to 3 mm in length. But how pretty, with the variegated scales.
Most Dermestids (beetles within family Dermestidae) are scavengers that feed on dry animal or plant material, such as skin or pollen, animal hair, feathers, dead insects and natural fibres.
This was just one of many Anthrenus verbasci that I saw on native Leptospermum polygalifolium flowers.
I learned that this very species was the first insect to be shown to have an annual behavioural rhythm and to date, remains a classic example of circannual cycles in animals.
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The pollinators haven't found our Texas mountain laurel flowers, but these tiny "carpet beetles" have - seems they can go for flowers too...
I know - got you to look with this iconic misspelled title. Long-horned beetle and tiny carpet beetle bumped into each other and then went about their business on this daisy.
My first bug in 2017 ツ
This tiny teeny weeny bug runs pretty fast. Its length is about
2.5 - 3.8 mm.
i swear i did not photoshop a beetle on this flower. the beetle really existed, and idk how i got this weird effect on this pic where it looks fake af, ha ha!
Donna just alerted me that they are carpet beatles - seems harmless on flower, but their larvae chews your fabric!
The very small museum beetle (Anthrenus museorum) isn't named that way because of its notable cultural interests. Instead, this species feeds on things like skin, fur and hides on dead animals - which makes it a not very popular visitor (and soon inhabitant) of places like a museum of natural history where they can cause quite a lot of damage to the collections.
It isn't the adult beetle like this one which eats it, but rather the larvae.
Body length here is somewhere between 2 and 3 mm and this was shot at 3.7:1 magnification and is a two-exposure focus stack for a little extra DoF.
Some scientific names can explain so much what a species is about. This tiny tiny beetle (this is at 4.3:1 magnification and the beetle is ~2 mm long) is known as Anthrenus museorum - or the museum beetle.
Now what is museal about it you ask? Well, while the adults live on nectar and pollen, the larvae are part on nature's clean-up crew. They primarily eat dry skin and hair and are part of the effort of not having dead animals lying around everywhere.
Now imagine a museum of natural history or similar. Rows and rows of taxidermied animals which basically consist of specifically dry hair and skin. Not exactly a desired visitor, right?
Focusing on this particular specimen, doesn't the pattern of those scales look just amazing?
Tiny Checkered Carpet beetle. (Anthrenus museorum).on chives flower. Home, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. 27 July 2021
www.inaturalist.org/taxa/130587-Anthrenus-museorum
Anthrenus
Size: 1.8-4 mm(3)
Identification: Broad body covered with colored scales that often form patterns(3) (scale colour and distribution variable, but often diagnostic)
Habitat: In the wild, abandoned nests of birds/mammals or old wasp nests; some spp. are common household stored product pests. Adults frequent flowers.
Season: Adults mainly occur in spring (year round indoors)
Food" larvae scavenge on accumulated fur, feathers, skin flakes, dead insects, etc. keratine- or chitin-rich materials; adults feed on pollen on flowers
Typical household products consumed include dry pet food, wool blankets/clothes, furs, and hair and skin flakes shed by people and pets and accumulated in the corners
