Anthrenocerus australis

Australian carpet beetle ( Anthrenocerus australis)

The Australian carpet beetle ( Anthrenocerus australis) is a beetle of the family of skin beetles ( Dermestidae ).

Description

The shape of up to 3.5 mm large beetle is oval. The male is smaller than the female. The color is reddish brown to black. The sensors consist of eleven members.

The larva is up to six millimeters long here. The color is brown, yellowish below and white. Also, it has arrow hair. Their diet consists of woolen goods of all kinds and other animal substances.

Way of life

The beetles have probably spread from England via the Netherlands to Germany and then back. He is now a common pest apartment in Northwest Germany.

The larva of the Australian carpet beetle eats with fondness in wool and leather products. They can cause considerable damage by Keratinfraß.

The Australian carpet beetle differ to the extent of the other bacon beetle species that they can produce up to three generations per year. Fresh beetles hatch almost throughout the year, with the exception of the winter months.

In Australia, the beetles are mainly to be found on flowers where they feed on pollen, while they are limited by what we know today in our latitudes entirely on life inside buildings.

The development of the eggs and their number seems to be temperature dependent, with the larva hatches at the ideal temperature of 22 ° C after a maximum of 12 days and then immediately begins with the food intake. Whether the carpet beetle, however, in the short period of the adult state is still eating, is unknown.

The number of larvae of stages depends also on the temperature, as well as the food. At room temperature, the larva develops in two months for beetles.