About Attagenus smirnovi Zhantiev, 1973
Attagenus smirnovi, the brown carpet beetle, is a species of beetle in the family Dermestidae. It is a synanthropic pest that lives in human buildings, homes, and museums, and feeds on wool-textiles, carpets, skin, and fur. Due to its specific epithet smirnovi, it is known as the 'Vodka beetle' in the United Kingdom, named after the Smirnoff vodka brand. Naturally found in Africa, it has spread to Russia (first observed there in 1961 in Moscow by E. S. Smirnov), the Czech Republic, other eastern European countries, Germany (first recorded there in 1985 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), Denmark, and the United Kingdom. Rustem Devletovich Zhantiev first formally described this as a new species in 1973, and named it Attagenus smirnovi. Museums and scientific institutions in Northern Europe have created an international project to study the brown fur beetle's distribution in Europe and how that distribution may relate to climate change. One key research focus is identifying the climatic conditions that let this beetle spread by flying from house to house.
