The use of dermestid beetles to clean vertebrate skulls and postcranial skeletons is a technique that results in beautiful skeletal preparations. The widely distributed carrion beetle, Dermestes maculatus (Coleoptera, Dermestidae), often called the hide beetle, is the most commonly used species (Fig. 1). The innovation of using beetles that generally are thought of as pests in households, stored grain, and the food service industry, was discovered independently at least twice—in France in the 1870s and again in the United States in the early 1900s (Timm 1982). Mammalogists wrote many of the original published descriptions elucidating how to cultivate and effectively use dermestids to clean skulls and other skeletal material, and the first articles appeared in the pages of the Journal of Mammalogy (Hall and Russell 1933; Borell 1938). Most subsequent papers on improvements in dermestid husbandry also were written by mammalogists (Somer and Anderson 1975; Williams et al. 1977; Williams and Rogers 1989; Williams and Smith 1995).

中文翻译：

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改变哺乳动物学的创新技术：皮甲虫-清洁头骨的更好方法

使用皮肤雌性甲虫清洁脊椎动物的颅骨和颅后骨骼是一种产生美丽骨骼准备的技术。最常见的物种是分布广泛的腐肉甲虫（Dermestes maculatus）（鞘翅目（Ceroptera，Dermestidae）），被称为生皮甲虫（图1）。至少两次独立地发现了使用甲虫的创新，这种甲虫通常被认为是家庭，储粮和食品服务业中的害虫-在1870年代的法国以及在1900年代的美国再次被至少两次发现（Timm 1982）。 。哺乳动物学家撰写了许多最初发表的描述，阐明了如何培养和有效地使用皮肤雌激素来清洁头骨和其他骨骼材料，第一篇文章出现在《哺乳动物学杂志》的页面上（Hall and Russell 1933; Borell 1938）。随后有关哺乳动物绝育的大多数论文也由哺乳动物学家撰写（Somer和Anderson，1975； Williams等，1977； Williams和Rogers，1989； Williams和Smith，1995）。