Cabbage flower beetle

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Cabbage flower beetle
Cabbage flower beetle (Anthrenus verbasci)

Cabbage flower beetle ( Anthrenus verbasci )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Beetle (Coleoptera)
Subordination : Polyphaga
Family : Bacon beetle (Dermestidae)
Genre : Anthrenus
Type : Cabbage flower beetle
Scientific name
Anthrenus verbasci
( Linnaeus , 1767)

The varied carpet beetle ( Anthrenus verbasci ), also museum beetle called, is a representative of the skin beetles (Dermestidae). Like its relatives, the cabinet beetle ( Anthrenus museorum ) and the carpet beetle ( Anthrenus scrophulariae ), it is a common material pest .

features

The 1.7-3.5 millimeter long, round, almost spherical woolly flower beetle has a dark brown basic color with a variable light brown and white scale pattern. You can usually see three light, wavy cross bars. Their short antennae are eleven-limbed and thickened club-shaped on the last three limbs.

The larvae become 4–5 mm long. They are densely hairy and elongated, the body usually widens towards the back. At the end of the abdomen they have two tufts with arrow hairs, which can be spread apart for protection in case of danger and the tips of which break off easily.

Occurrence

The animals occur as cultural followers worldwide and almost everywhere in human society.

Way of life

The larvae eat keratin and chitin , especially dead insects, animal hair and feathers, which is why entomologists in particular fear them as pests in insect collections. In Central Europe, this species is the most common pest in these collections.

As an imago , the beetle feeds on nectar and pollen. They live in houses, apartments and camps, in the wild they usually sit on flowers, where mating usually takes place between late May and early June. The females then look for suitable places to lay their eggs, either close to humans or in bird nests, tree hollows and similar, dry places where they can find larval food. The eggs are laid there in protected cracks. The life expectancy is depending on the environmental conditions, especially the temperature, 1–3 years, including about two weeks as a beetle.

  • Cabbage flower beetle

  • Larva from the side

  • Larva from the front

literature

  • Karl Wilhelm Harde, Frantisek Severa: The Kosmos Käferführer. The Central European beetle . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co, 4th edition, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-440-06959-1

Web links

Commons : Cabbage Beetle  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files