Anthrenus himalayensis: A new species of Skin Beetle from Kashmir.

Skin Beetles, Dermestidae, are small (1-12 mm) oval Beetles with scaly bodies and distinctive clubbed antennae which can be fitted into grooves on the body for protection. Most species feed on dry plant matter, and can be a pest if they get into grain stores or fabrics. Others are carrion feeders, and are considered useful in forensic entomology; they are late stage carcass feeders targeting dried skin, tendons and bone, and their presence indicates how long corpses have been exposed (rather than buried or shoved in a fridge) after their deaths, not generally colonising a body till it has been dead about five days. They are also sometimes used by natural history museums to clean animal skeletons for display. There are currently between 500 and 700 described species of Skin Beetle, with 266 placed in a single genus, Anthrenus, which has a global distribution, even being found on many small oceanic islands.

In a paper published in the Turkish Journal of Zoology on 28 November 2018, Jiří Háva of the Department of Forest Protection and Entomology at the Czech University of Life Sciences, Aijaz Ahmad Wachkoo of the Department of Zoology at the Government Degree College in Shopian, and Amir Maqbool of the Department of Zoology at the Government College for Women in Srinagar, describe a new species of Anthrenus from the Kashmir Valley in Jammu and Kashmir State, India.

The new species is named Anthrenus himalayensis, in reference to the Himalayas Mountains, where it was found. These Beetles are about 2.8 mm in length and about 1.7 mm in width, brown, yellow and white in colour and covered in fine scales. The sexes can be told apart by their antennae. They were found visiting the flowers of the Large Leaflet Water Parsnip, Sium latijugum, in November 2017, at an altitude of 2146 m above sealevel.

Anthrenus himalayensis: (4) Lateral view; (5) Dorsal view. Háva et al. (2018).

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A new species of Skin Beetle from Yunnan Province, China.

Skin Beetles, Dermestidae, are small (1-12 mm) oval Beetles with scaly bodies and distinctive clubbed antennae which can be fitted into grooves on the body for protection. Most species feed on dry plant matter, and can be a pest if they get into grain stores or fabrics. Others are carrion feeders, and are considered useful in forensic entomology; they are late stage carcass feeders targeting dried skin, tendons and bone, and their presence indicates how long corpses have been exposed (rather than buried or shoved in a fridge) after their deaths, not generally colonizing a body till it has been dead about five days. They are also sometimes used by natural history museums to clean animal skeletons for display.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 27 December 2012, Meiying Lin and Xingke Yang of the Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution at the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, describe a new species of Skin Beetle discovered in the Nanban River Watershed National Natural Reserve in Yunnan Province during a study that was part of the Living Landscapes China project.

The new beetle is placed in the genus Trichodryas, which has perviously only been known from Malaysia; Lin & Yang suggest that this may imply the genus is far more widely distributed across southeast Asia, and simply has not yet been found and described in many locations. It is given the specific name slipinskii, in honour of Adam Ślipiński of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, a leading Beetle biologist.

Trichodryas slipinskii is a 3.0-3.2 mm brown Beetle with white eyes and 10-segmented antennae. The species is described from two male specimens captured in a Malaise trap (tent like structure used to capture flying insects) in forest, 746 m above sealevel in the Nanban River Watershed National Natural Reserve, close to the border with Myanmar.

Trichodryas slipinskii. Lin & Yang (2012).

The location where Trichodryas slipinskii was discovered. Google Maps.

See also A blind, cave dwelling, Ground Beetle from Anatolian Turkey, Three new species of Palm Weevil from Columbia, A new species of Bumble Bee Scarab Beetle from the Early Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia, A new species of Corythoderine Scarab Beetle from Cambodia and Two new species of Ground Beetle from the Pyrenees.

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