Comments on: Teeny Bug

By: Entr0physt

Entr0physt — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:48:41 +0000

Makes sense… even though genetic evolution is a long-term process, it filters via adaptation, which can happen very quickly. I guess some part of me is prejudiced to think that a critter from one place would try to get back to where it fits in, or at least share its time across both. I guess that makes us somewhat responsible for the ones who now choose to live with us instead of in their ancestral home. Mi casa su casa…

By: Insect Picture of the Day » Carpet Beetle

Insect Picture of the Day » Carpet Beetle — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:06:49 +0000

[...] an adult and post it someday soon, so I was a bit surprised at my own surprise to discover that last Thursday’s bug was actually a carpet beetle. Thank you everyone for helping with the ID; Susannah had the clincher [...]

By: tceisele

tceisele — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:13:36 +0000

They evidently used to live in bird and mammal nests, eating skin flakes, hair, feathers, and (when the animal died in the den) corpses. They adapted to dry conditions in the process (since most animals like dry nests), so they bear up well in a dry house. That’s one thing that most of the house fauna has in common: they are mostly arid-region animals that can manage well without much in the way of a water source. A lot of the things you find in the house aren’t things that got in from outside; many of them have turned the house into their ecosystem, and have little or nothing in common with the critters outdoors. These are the ones that travel around the world with us, and you will find in pretty much everybody’s house.

By: Entr0physt

Entr0physt — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:13:16 +0000

Cool, yeah I wish I’d read the carpet beetle post first, the coloring is exact!
At least I got the Order right. Where did they live before the World Of Carpet, I wonder? There has to be something about the consistency or the fibers that they like, and that other outdoor insects don’t. Do they live in palm mesh or fibours desert grasses?

By: David Brady

David Brady — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:13:15 +0000

tceisele, Susannah: Looks like you’re right. It’s a dead ringer for the carpet beetle underside photo. Cool! So the beak I saw in the other photo is probably me misreading the photo.

By: Susannah

Susannah — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:59:47 +0000

Looks like a carpet beetle to me. I’ve been trying to photograph a couple for ages, and it looks just like my poor pics.

Look at the underside: does it look like this?

By: Entr0physt

Entr0physt — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:28:30 +0000

Given that the forewings do not appear to overlap, and seem to curve downward at the posterior, and given the gloss level of the shell-wings, I’d guess this one is actually a beetle of suborder Myxophaga, order Coleoptera. Possibly even a flea-beetle with jeuvenile coloring? Many beetles have large or even piercing mouthparts, but all truebugs have overlapping forewings that get thinner toward the posterior, and they typically don’t curve downward. It sure is wee.

By: tceisele

tceisele — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:05:22 +0000

Well, if it weren’t for the note about it having a bug-style proboscis, I’d think it was a carpet beetle, like these. I still think that’s a possibility, but let’s see what the face looks like, first . . .

We have carpet beetles in the house. As does pretty much everybody, I think (although many people deny it). They’re great if you want to, say, extract the skeletons from small mammals (the larvae eat everything but the bone. And I mean everything

By: AJ

AJ — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:26:01 +0000

Whatever it is, it looks a lot like the nameless little beetle guys that are all over my apartment. I have no idea what they are, but they’re cute, harmless (as far as I can tell) and they kind of tickle when they crawl on me, so I keep them around. They’re so tiny that they even escape the notice of my cats, who go crazy over the occasional moth and fly that sneak in.