The varied carpet beetle (Anthrenus verbasci) is a 3 mm–long beetle belonging to the family Dermestidae
This beetle can be a serious household pest and a pest in natural history museums, where it can damage many biological specimens. While adults are pollen grazers, larvae feed on natural fibers and can damage carpets, furniture, clothing and insects collections.
The larval form is known as a woolly bear, a name it shares with the larvae of Arctia caja and many other moths of the family Arctiidae.
A. verbasci was the first insect to be shown to have an annual circadian rhythm and to date remains a classic example of circannual cycles in animals.
Read more about Varied Carpet Beetle: Identification, Distribution, Interaction With Humans
Famous quotes containing the words varied, carpet and/or beetle:
“The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“My veins are filled, once a week with a Neapolitan carpet cleaner distilled from the Adriatic and I am as bald as an egg. However I still get around and am mean to cats.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)
“The sense of death is most in apprehension,
And the poor beetle that we tread upon
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)