''Dermestes ater'' is a species of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

in the family

Dermestidae Dermestidae are a family of Coleoptera that are commonly referred to as skin beetles or carpet beetles. Other common names include larder beetles, hide or leather beetles, and khapra beetles. There are over 1,800 species described. Dermestids ha ...

, the skin beetles. It is known commonly as the black larder beetle or incinerator beetle (not to be confused with '' Dermestes haemorrhoidalis'', the African larder beetle, also sometimes referred to as the black larder beetle).Bujang, N. S. & Kaufman, P. E
Black larder beetle, incinerator beetle, ''Dermestes ater'' DeGeer (Insecta: Coleoptera: Dermestidae).
Publication #EENY480, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) Extension. August 2010. It is native to North America, but today it is found nearly worldwide. Like several other dermestid beetles, this species is a common pest of stored products.

Description

The adult beetle is about 7 to 9 millimeters long. It has black or brown

elytra An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometime ...

and a coating of yellowish hairs. The male can be distinguished from the female by a row of bristles along the abdomen. The larva has long dark bristles. Its body is white except for its

head capsule Insect morphology is the study and description of the physical form of insects. The terminology used to describe insects is similar to that used for other arthropods due to their shared evolutionary history. Three physical features separate inse ...

, dorsal plates and urogomphi, which darken in color to black, brown, or reddish as it grows. Adults reach a maximum length of about 14 mm and larvae of about 14 to 17 mm. Adults of ''Dermestes ater'' resemble ''D. haemorrhoidalis'' and '' D. peruvianus'' but differ in several ways. In ''D. ater'', the first visible

sternite The sternum (: sterna) is the ventral portion of a segment of an arthropod thorax or abdomen. In insects, the sterna are usually single, large sclerites, and external. However, they can sometimes be divided in two or more, in which case the su ...

bear impressed lines parallel to the lateral margin that are angled inwards towards the base, therefore their end next to the metasternal hind margin is at some distance from the edge; while on ''D. haemorrhoidalis'' and ''D. peruvianus'' these lines are parallel to the side margin throughout their length. ''Dermestes ater'' further differs from the two other species in having a symmetrical pattern of light and dark pubescence on all abdominal sternites. The dark pubescence being near the side edges. The dark pubescence may be barely visible so these areas may appear glabrous next to the lighter (grey) pubescence. Larvae of ''D. ater'' can be distinguished from close relatives in having their urogomphi backwardly directed, but appearing nearly straight in side view. Each tibia bears a short stout spine on dorsal apex of posterior face. Abdominal tergites 4-9 without retrorse tubercles but instead each has a row of about 30 short erect setae immediately posterior to anterior transverse ridge (larvae of other species have much fewer than 30). Head without frontal tubercles.

Life cycle

The female lays 1 to 25 eggs at a time. They are whitish and about 2 millimeters long. The eggs hatch in a few days, depending on temperature. Larval development also depends on temperature, as well as humidity and food availability. Each larva may proceed through six to nine

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'' 'form, likeness') is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, which occurs between each moult (''ecdysis'') until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to ...

s, taking 19 to 50 days to grow to maximum size. It then

pupa A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...

tes for several days. The adult lives for around 169 days, depending on temperature.

Economic and scientific importance

The beetle attacks many types of stored food and other products. It has been found in cheese, dried fish, leather,

copra Copra (from ; ; ; ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted ...

, silk, wool, milk powder, incinerated waste, hog bristles, dried mushrooms, cacao, and

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

.Roth, L. M., & Willis, E. R. (1950)
The oviposition of ''Dermestes ater'' Degeer, with notes on bionomics under laboratory conditions.
''American Midland Naturalist'' 44(2) 427-447. It is an occasional predator, feeding on live insects; it is a pest of the

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, the caterpillar of the Bombyx mori, domestic silkmoth is the most widely used and intensively studied silkwo ...

industry because it preys on silkworm pupae, damaging the silk cocoons in the process. It also feeds on

housefly The housefly (''Musca domestica'') is a fly of the suborder Cyclorrhapha. It possibly originated in the Middle East, and Cosmopolitan distribution, spread around the world as a commensal of humans. Adults are gray to black, with four dark, lo ...

(''Musca domestica'') larvae and pupae in places where both insects congregate, such as poultry houses. The adult may cannibalize larvae and pupae of its own species, and the larvae may eat each other and the eggs. It is also a scavenger of dead animals. It is a pest of museum collections, such as dried insects. It has been found living in and consuming human corpses, so it may play a role in

forensic entomology Forensic entomology is a branch of applied entomology that uses insects and other arthropods as a basis for legal evidence. Insects may be found on cadavers or elsewhere around crime scenes in the interest of forensic science. Forensic entom ...

. The beetle carries several parasites including chicken

tapeworm Eucestoda, commonly referred to as tapeworms, is the larger of the two subclasses of flatworms in the class Cestoda (the other subclass being Cestodaria). Larvae have six posterior hooks on the scolex (head), in contrast to the ten-hooked Ce ...

s, and are found inhabiting chicken coops where they can spread the parasites to the birds.Avancini, R. M., & Ueta, M. T. (1990)
Manure breeding insects (Diptera and Coleoptera) responsible for cestoidosis in caged layer hens.
''Journal of Applied Entomology'', 110(1‐5), 307-312.

References

{{Authority control Dermestes Agricultural pest insects Beetles described in 1774 Taxa named by Charles De Geer