#3198 · 🪲 beetles
Varied Carpet Beetle
🇳🇱 Gewone Tapijtkever ·Anthrenus verbasci
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Joe MDO · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © Nadja Baumgartner · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Matt Tudor · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Marcel_Pepin · CC BY 4.0
- 5. © Michał Górski · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © Jakob Horz · CC BY 4.0
- 7. © unorthodox_sketch · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. © Judy Gallagher · CC BY-SA 4.0
- 9. © eltontitodelosbichos · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 10. © Alexandru Pintilioaie · CC BY-NC 4.0
what is it?
The varied carpet beetle ( Anthrenus verbasci ) is a 3 mm-long beetle belonging to the family Dermestidae. They are a common species, often considered a pest of domestic houses and, particularly, natural history museums, where the larvae may damage natural fibers and can damage carpets, furniture, clothing, and insect collections. A. verbasci was also the first insect to be shown to have an annual behavioral rhythm and to date remains a classic example of circannual cycles in animals.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 316 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #36 most seen of the beetles in NL.
- 42,193 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775 (251 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Varied Carpet Beetle
- Nederlands
- Gewone Tapijtkever
- scientific name
- Anthrenus verbasci
- class
- Insecta
- order
- Coleoptera
- family
- Dermestidae
- sightings in NL
- 316
- sightings in Europe
- 10,721
- sightings worldwide
- 42,193
- GBIF records in NL
- 509
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1775 by Johan Christian Fabricius
relatives· Dermestidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 120113, Wikidata Q968176, GBIF 1095895, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.