Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions. / A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.

by Frank Cowan

Dermestidæ—Leather-beetles.

In one of the stone coffins exhumed from the tumuli in the links of Skail, were found several small bags, which seemed to have been made of rushes. They all contained bones, with the exception of one, which is said to have been full of beetles belonging to the genus Dermestes. Both the bag and beetles were black and rotten.[31]

Four species of Dermestes were found in the head of one of the mummies brought by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson from Thebes—the D. vulpinus of Fabricius, and the pollinctus, roei, and elongatus of Hope.[32]

It is a remarkable coincidence that two peoples should bury beetles of the same genus with their dead, and much the more so, when they differ so widely, as did the ancient Britons and Egyptians. Was it for the same reason—the result of any communication?

At one time the ravages of the Dermestes vulpinus were so great in the skin-warehouses of London, that a reward of £20,000 was offered for an available remedy.[33]