Household wildlife

[urbpan]

One of my cherished roles is that of naturalist of domestic fauna. I love it when someone brings me an animal (usually a bug) they found in or around their home for me to identify. A friend who knows this about me brought me this specimen, found in her kitchen pantry:





In times like this, I covet cottonmanifesto's camera. My little one did an okay job, once I blew the picture up a bit:




It was easy enough seeing this image to identify the creature as a dermestid beetle larva. Dermestid beetles (and their larvae) are famous and infamous among people who keep biological specimens. They are useful as defleshers of bone--you can buy little vials full of them to set upon skeletal specimens to clean the bones of skin and dried viscera. Alas, if you keep taxidermy or preserved insects, dermestids are destructors that will reduce your collection to crumbled waste. It was probably these beetles that ruined a chipmunk taxidermy I have, as well as a very expensive wool suit my father in law gave me. Their taste for animal fibers, whether attached to the preserved skin of a mounted chipmunk or woven into a jacket or oriental rug has earned them the common name carpet beetles. Looking into the subject on line, we learned that they are omnivorous, and will eat grain products as well, which explains the animal's presence in my friend's pantry.

Under the microscope the larva wasn't easier to identify, but did look pretty interesting:





Close readers of this blog will no doubt remember the dermestid exuviae found clinging to the mouse skeleton I found in my ceiling. Exuvia is the term for the shed exoskeleton that an arthropod leaves behind when it grows or metamorphoses. Usually the word is associated with the collectable shells left behind when a cicada or dragonfly changes from larva to adult.

Comments

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

If I ever decide to become a serial killer, I've already worked out a complex body disposal scheme involving a whole tupperware bucket just full of Dermestids to get rid of skin and hair.

[ms-cantrell.livejournal.com]

lol! ingenious!!

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

What about the pack of hyenas to dispose of the bones? I guess you could just take a quick trip to the zoo. :)

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

I was always fond of the idea of using alligators (when I lived in Florida).

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

That'd work too. I'd just use the dogs since they're there taking up space anyway.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

Yeah....hehehe....this is so morbid...Sometimes I wonder...if I were to die, and it was a while before anyone found my body, and my cats were starving, would they eat me?

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

I think urbpan and I decided that we'd probably have to be rotting first. One would hope they wouldn't starve themselves just because of some silly human idea of reverence for the dead.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

I am glad to know that I am not the only person who has contemplated the possibility of being consumed by their pets. =)

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

With 3 carnivores in the house, it's something that's worth some thought. :)

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

You have guinea pigs???!!! I miss my lil' weep weeps (although I am highly allergic to them).

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

In theory they're my daughters but you know how it goes.

They're very cute! :) I don't think we have to worry about them eating us though....

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

I think I remember reading somewhere that cats are more likely to do this than dogs. Wish I could remember where. I can't find any mention of it online, so maybe I'm making it up or it's just an urban legend. It was a funny bit in an X-Files episode, though.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

The alternate title to that episode should be "How Scully got a pomeranian." :)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

All-too quickly eaten by a lake monster.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

At least she got to give it a bath first! :)

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

Exactly!
And then he got eaten by a sea monster...er...Lake monster.

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

D'oh!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that was a reference to silent movie actress Marie Prevost, who died in her home and wasn't discovered for weeks; her beloved dachshund had survived by consuming parts of her corpse.

I learned this both in "Hollywood Babylon," and in the Nick Lowe song which has the catchy chorus "She was the winner/ who became the doggy's dinner."

It seems probable that other people have been partially eaten by their pets--the phrase "advanced stage of decomposition" covers a multitude of sins.

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

You know, I really enjoy reading your journal. I never know what I'm going to learn, but I can be sure it will be something interesting.

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that happens in every other Hiaasen book.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

Exuviae I learned a new word. (Well, I am sure I have heard the word before, and I am familiar with the concept. I usually just call them "molts".)

exuvia

[plantgirl.livejournal.com]

Yay for new words - Thank you!