{{Short description|Species of beetle}} {{Speciesbox | image = Anthrenus-museorum-05-fws.jpg | image_caption = Male beetle | image2 = Anthrenus-museorum-13-fws.jpg | image2_caption = Female beetle (underside) | genus = Anthrenus | parent = Florilinus | species = museorum | authority = (Linnaeus, 1761) }}

'''''Anthrenus museorum''''', commonly known as the '''museum beetle''', is a species of beetle found in the Palearctic (including Europe), the Near East and the Nearctic. In its larval form it damages all forms of dry skin and hair. The larva will also eat dry cheese, flour or cocoa occasionally.<ref name=inra>{{cite web|url=http://www.inra.fr/opie-insectes/d-antmus.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090429200223/http://www.inra.fr/opie-insectes/d-antmus.htm |archive-date=2009-04-29 |title=Anthrène des musées |url-status=dead }}</ref> It is considered a pest, as it damages, among others, the skin of taxidermied animals, such as polar bears and big cats in museums.<ref name="Browne2015">{{cite book|author=Montagu Browne|title=Practical Taxidermy - A Manual of Instruction to the Amateur in Collecting, Preserving, and Setting up Natural History Specimens of All Kinds. To Which is Added a Chapter Upon the Pictorial Arrangement of Museums|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hMF9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT211|date=31 July 2015|publisher=Read Books Limited|isbn=978-1-4733-7689-2|page=211}}</ref><ref>Strang, T. J. K. "Session 7: Museum Pests." Available from: [http://spiru.cgahr.ksu.edu/proj/iwcspp/pdf2/11/108.pdf http://spiru.cgahr.ksu.edu/proj/iwcspp/pdf2/11/108.pdf]</ref> thumb|left|Larva The larva is yellowish, hairy, and measures {{convert|4.5|mm|in}}. The dorsal surface of the prothorax is brownish. At its rear end, it has three pairs of long antenna.<!-- french: À l'extrémité postérieure, convergeant vers la région axiale, on remarque 3 paires de pinceaux de soie.--> The adult measures 2 to 4&nbsp;mm. It has a round shape and its dark elytra are spotted with bright colors. It lives for one or two weeks, outdoors, on plants. It prefers the flowers of Asteraceae, Apiaceae and Scrophulariaceae. To lay eggs, the female seeks nooks, carpets, flooring or wool to hide and to assure a food supply for the larvae. She lays forty eggs at a time once a year.<ref name=inra/> {{Clear|left}}

==Range== Generally cosmopolitan (appears in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Australia). In Europe, it is known from Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, mainland Denmark, Estonia, Finland, mainland France, Germany, Great Britain including the Isle of Man, mainland Greece, Hungary, mainland Italy, Kaliningrad, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, North Macedonia, mainland Norway, Poland, mainland Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sardinia, Slovakia, Slovenia, mainland Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Turkey, Yugoslavia.<ref name="urlFaunaEuropaea">{{cite web |url=http://www.faunaeur.org/full_results.php?id=413733 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725132038/http://www.faunaeur.org/full_results.php?id=413733 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 25, 2015 |title=''Anthrenus museorum'' at Fauna Europaea : Taxon Details |format= |accessdate=2013-03-18}}</ref><ref name="GBIF">{{cite web |url=http://data.gbif.org/species/1095904/ |title=''Anthrenus museorum'' at Global Biodiversity Information Facility |format= |accessdate=2013-03-18}}</ref>

==See also== * Carpet beetle * ''Anthrenus fuscus'' (commonly confused species)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons}} {{Wikispecies}} *[http://museumpests.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/museum-beetle-fact-sheet.pdf Museumpest.net Museum Beetle Factsheet]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q1300391}}

museorum Category:Palearctic insects Category:Beetles described in 1761 Category:Pest insects Category:Animal taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Category:Storage pests Category:Necrophages

{{Anthrenus-stub}}