Dermestidae

Turienzo, Paola & Iorio, Osvaldo Di, 2008, Insects found in birds’ nests from Argentina: Anumbius annumbi (Vieillot, 1817) (Aves: Furnariidae), Zootaxa 1871, pp. 1-55 : 38

Dermestidae

The South American fauna of Dermestidae , especially Trogoderma , is largely unstudied because several old type specimens need to be located and identified for revision. Only a few species can be identified with confidence because of their distinctive features. Five larval morphospecies found in the nests of A. annumbi provided identification of different adults as follows:

Long black larvae [sp. 1] = Trogoderma sp. 1

Flat orange larvae [sp. 2] = Trogoderma sp. 2

Brown hairy larvae [sp. 3] = Trogoderma sp. 3 [black adults]

Large orange larvae [sp. 4] = Trogoderma pectinicornis Reitter, 1881

Long orange larvae [sp. 5] = Trogoderma sp. 5

These larvae feed on dead insects found inside nests. The dead insect species used as food were present as hibernants and died inside ( Table 2). In addition, other insect remains were present (see section III). Adults of Trogoderma can be distinguished from other Dermestidae genera by the presence of a median ocellus, and the segment I of tarsus III being longer than segment II ( Kingsolver 1987).