This beetle is now well established in this country and is a most serious furniture pest. The adults eat holes through heavy leather and linen coverings, while the larvæ reduce the hair used in the upholstering to a mass of cast larval skins and ground-up hair. The hair then has the appearance of black gritty dirt which can be scraped up by the handful, if not by the pailful. When the larvæ become abundant in a piece of furniture they may drop to the floor and there feed upon rugs and other fabrics made of wool, hair, fur, or feathers. The larva; or grubs are seldom seen unless searched for, but the adults, because of their habit of flight during March to June (in Washington), leave the furniture and crawl about the furnishings and windows, and while hardly one-fourth of an inch long, are made conspicuous by the brown, white, and yellow scales that cover their bodies. [Illustration: Fig. 11.--Upholstered furniture sometimes harbors thousands of clothes moths and carpet beetles without showing evidence of their feeding until they have become very abundant. From this couch thousands of adult carpet beetles were found emerging, and spreading about the house. Only reupholstering or fumigation will rid such a piece of furniture of pests.] For a general impression of the appearance of the furniture carpet beetle see Figure 10. The adult may live several weeks. The female has been known to lay as many as 36 eggs in one day. Fortunately this species does not seem to be very prolific, since no adult has been known to lay more than 85 eggs. The eggs are small, white, easily crushed by brushing, and are laid in the nap of clothing. In furniture coverings of mohair, plush, and similar materials the eggs are tucked down in the pile, as shown in Figure 13. The eggs hatch during warm summer weather in from 12 to 15 days. The larvæ require the rest of the year for growth and do not transform to the adult until the following spring. The larvæ, however, do not all grow equally well, and some specimens may require only one year for development, while others may remain for considerable periods somewhat dormant, even in the presence of much food, and will not transform to the adult until much later, sometimes as long as one year after others, hatching on the same day, have matured.