The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dermestes \Der*mes"tes\, n. [NL., from Gr. dermhsth`s; de`rma skin + root of ? to eat.] (Zo["o]l.) A genus of coleopterous insects, the larv[ae] of which feed animal substances. They are very destructive to dries meats, skins, woolens, and furs. The most common species is Dermestes lardarius, known as the bacon beetle.
Wiktionary
n. A beetle ((taxlink Dermestes lardarius species noshow=1)) which, especially in the larval state, feeds upon bacon, woollen goods, furs, etc.
Usage examples of "bacon beetle".
They fed him a handful of boiled corn and a strip of badly aired meat, gamey and rank with bacon beetle.
A strange collection of objects was laid in the niche: horns of blue buck and rhebuck so old they were encrusted with the cocoons of the bacon beetle, the skull of a baboon and the wings of a heron, dry and brittle with age, a calabash half filled with pretty agate and quartz pebbles, water-worn and polished, a necklace of beads chipped from ostrich egg, flint arrow-heads and a quiver that was rotted and cracked.