Anthrenus museorum
There is a hairy, larval weapon a ¼ the size of my pinky nail who infiltrates museum collections worldwide and causes irreparable damage - the museum beetle. The species was first described by Linnaeus himself in 1761, during a time when natural history museums were fairly far and few. The beetle must have gained notoriety by feasting on the offerings of the cabinets of curiosities in the castles of kings. All of the destruction is caused whilst the beetle is still a larva. As a baby, it needs to eat lots in order to facilitate a dramatic transformation. It’s a specimen fuelled metamorphosis - imagine a fat white grub, wriggling and wiggling, melting its insides into a primordial stew and rebuilding a body out of 300 year old harpy eagle and plants that no longer grow. Anthrenus crafts his hardened carapace out of a dead dart frog - it’s like a strange reincarnation. Bar the polar regions, there’s not an inch of land mass Anthrenus museorum can’t make his roost. I remember the first time I saw his handiwork at the Booth museum in Brighton - there was a drawer of caterpillars which looked like they were riddled with miniature bullet holes. Anthrenus had tunnelled his glistening embryonic body in and out of the long dead creatures, nibbling their insides as he went.
The more I read about the species, the more shrouded and eldritch it seems. Once the larval transformation is complete and a beetle has emerged, the cycle starts again, and the ravaged museum specimen becomes home to a courtship ritual. It’s no wonder that after a fine dinner, the beetle, like most of us, fancies a fuck. They do it on the back of an old heron, or the wing of a nightingale, creating life whilst frozen in time within a glass diorama.
The beetle is a horny, gluttonous spectre, haunting collections across the world. An article I read says it is “often quoted as a ‘frequent and feared pest in museum collections’ by eminent entomologists, a belief that has spread via electronic media.” I think of a chain of digital whispers, tales of his belligerence lurking on forums and email threads. As I’m scrolling through various articles, I come across a pair of photos which gives me pause. Uploaded by Richard Jones to his entomology blog, the following images show all that is left of the butterfly specimens once lovingly collected by an entomologist. The imprints of their wings, like chalk outlines at a crime scene, feel eerie.
The dreaded pest is the cousin of a whole clade of beetles of which ‘museum workers should remain vigilant.’ They are notorious criminals who leave very little evidence, just dusty shadows in boxes sealed for centuries. One of the members of this destructive clan is Anthrenus flavipes, who lacks the climatic range of A. museorum, but shares his destructive tendencies. He is found in warmer places, like Greece, but as the meteorological pendulum swings, the beetle’s range widens. I realise I’ve begun to personify this group of beetles as a mafia family in my own head. A. museorum is the Don Corleone, the big daddy, but ageing and losing territory. There’s A. verbasci, not a born museum specialist, often known as the carpet beetle, but now found more frequently in museums than our Corleone. Verbasci and Flavipes are like two sons vying for power, anticipating the demise of Museorum. He’s been at it since the 18th century, maybe it’s time to give the bambinos a chance?
On Richard Jones’ blog I mentioned earlier, he says that no one likes the Anthrenus beetles - that there’s someone who loves every bug, but no one loves these. I’d like to say I’ve grown quite fond of them as I’ve written this. My apologies to curators, taxidermists, and researchers everywhere, but there’s something brilliant about an insect who has steadfastly specialised in carrying out decomposition in the spaces which fight tooth and nail to keep it at bay. Nature devours all her creatures, these beetles are sneaky agents in her arsenal, thwarting our attempts to preserve and categorise her.
References:
https://bugmanjones.com/tag/anthrenus-museorum/
https://www.natsca.org/sites/default/files/publications/JoNSC-Vol8-Holloway_and_Bakaloudis _2021_0.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrenus_flavipes#/media/File:Anthrenus_flavipes_flavipes_LeConte,_1854.png
https://www.ukbeetles.co.uk/anthrenus-verbasci?lightbox=dataItem-jcs24lrj
https://www.coleoptera.org.uk/node/20579