Word: dermestid
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...restive animal with lumps of sugar. But for his new job he needed more equanimity than ever. Bat caves are chambers of horror. Their floors are deep in stinking guano and littered with the skulls and bones of long-dead bats. Over this repulsive carpet crawl fierce, flesh-eating dermestid beetles and their larvae-so numerous that the floor seems alive. When a sick or senile bat falls from the ceiling, the beetles crowd to devour it. The walls are thick with mites, ticks and other bat parasites. The air of the cave is foul with the unpleasant ammoniacal odor...
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