, 1891-08-07
INSECTS THA- EAT cuRlos.

'
How the omoers Of the Smithsonian in
stItution Combat Foes.
Bugs are a source of much anxiety and
annoyance to the ~curators of birds and
mammals at the Smithsonian institution
and in the National museum. II given
II chance they would gobble up the dead
and stuffed creatures, not even sparing
the bones and the beaks. Accordingly,
those in charge have to be perpetually
on the alert to combat these small but
not contemplate foes.
If a stuffed specimen" is thoroughly
poisoned with arsenic when it is pre-
pared there is little or nc danger that it
will ever be attacked, but the collections
in charge of Secretary Langley are gath
cred together from all parts of the world
and very many of the contributions are
not properly protected in this respect.
This is true particularly of those which
come from the tropics, where peppers
and pungent spices are considered suffi-
cient for purposes of preservation.
So they are for awhile. and then, the
spices having lost their strength, the
enemy begins to get in its work. Not
only does this happen with stuffed birds
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the institution with the flesh roughly
chopped off them and folded up in the
smallest possible compass for Transports
ton are frequently SO poorly protected
by poisoning that maggots get at them
and eat the ligaments which join the
bones SO as to seriously injure their use
fitness.
Three kinds of insects threaten the
stuffed collections. One is the familiar
moth, which eats the feathers or hair
down to the skin and leaves unsightly
bald patches. Another is the "dermes-
tes," or common "lard BEETLE" which
attacks and eats holes in the fatty skins.
But worse than either of these is the
''anthrinus"-a beetle about the size of n
No. 8 shot, and so small therefore that it
does not render itself evident and is not
readily found when sought for.
1t is very foud of anything horny, and,
getting a chance at a bird, it will begin
by eating off the covering of the bill, de-
nuding the legs afterward md chewing
up the shafts of the bigger feathers. If
it has an opportunity, it will regularly
honeycomb the horns of animals fres-
coed for museum purposes.
OF curse it is understood that these
three bugs do all the damage in the lar
va stage of their being-that is, while
they are yet worms. Another sort of in
sect gets into empty eggs and eats NJ the
lining membranes, where careless col
lectors nave left them inside, as they
should not do, but it cannot injure the
shells and does no harm, except to make
a litter.
The best remedy, or preventive, known
is %bisulphide of carbon; but it has SO
horrible a smell that Curator Ridgway
will not use it for keeping the birds I'M
der his charge. He prefers to employ the
next best thing, which is naphtholine, a
product of coal tar. A handful of crys-
tails of it will kill n case full of insects.
1t has the disadvantage of irritating the
breathing passages, producing a chronic
catarrh. Curator of Mammals True pre-
fers the offensive bisulphide of carbon.
A great many things besides beasts
and birds at the National museum have
to be protected from insects; for exam
Pile, the costumes of all nations and other
dry goods of every kind, which afford an
agreeable diet for ~devouring bugs, 1t is
no small task to protect these perishable
articles from the attacks of many legged
~scavengers with stomachs for anything
short of metal and no respect for the
most sacred of curios. Washington Star.