Description
The hide or leather beetle is similar in shape to the larder beetle except the wing covers are entirely dark and the body underside is mostly white. All larvae are longer than adult beetles (up to 1/2 inch), slender, densely covered with short and long hairs and reddish-brown to black, with two spines on top near the tail end. Larder beetle larvae spines curve backward, hide or leather beetle larvae spines curve forward, and black larder or incinerator beetle larvae spines extend backward and are not strongly curved.

Lifecycle:
Adult hide or leather beetles and larvae prefer to feed on raw skins and hides. Females may each lay up to 800 eggs. The life cycle is completed in 60 to 70 days. These larvae have a habit of boring into wood and other hard materials to pupate. Sometimes structural timbers may be damaged.

Mature larvae of hide beetles have the habit of boring into various hard surfaces to pupate, usually preferring softwoods. Some may climb 24 to 36 feet and bore into posts, studs and rafters seriously weakening and "honeycombing" these structures. Larvae are especially troublesome in poultry houses, damaging yellow pine, foam insulation.

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