The Irish Wood-lice. 5 



blind wood-lice are not adopted as one of the family, as the 

 ants, when disturbed, do not carry them out of danger, but let 

 their guests shift for themselves. 



The female wood-lice are provided with a series of large 

 membranous plates at the base of the legs. These plates lie 

 in a horizontal position and overlap one another, so as to form 

 a kind of pouch within which the eggs are lodged during 

 incubation, and the young are retained there for some time 

 after they are hatched. 



One species, Armadillidium vulgare, owing to its round 

 tail, is able to roll itself into a perfect ball, and 

 looks in this condition very much like a black pill. 

 Whether this fact has given rise to the belief that this 

 wood-louse has strong medicinal qualities I cannot tell, but 

 it was certainly in great favour formerly as a remedy for 

 indigestion. Some species try to roll themselves up when 

 alarmed, but the appendages at their tail seem to be rather in 

 the way, and prevent them from effectually performing this 

 evolution. Other species, like Philoscia and Trichoniscus, 

 when alarmed, feign death, and lie perfectly still on their 

 backs in the hope of thus escaping unobserved. 



Wood-lice are all of retiring habits, and they always live in 

 damp situations, as the air they breathe must be saturated with 

 moisture to keep the gill-like breathing organs in working 

 order. It is for this reason that Ireland, poor as is its fauna 

 in many respects, can boast of a large number of species, the 

 climate being quite an ideal one for their general comfort. 

 None of the species have, like their near relations the shrimps, 

 crabs, and lobsters, tempted mankind to search for them as 

 food, and they have, therefore, remained in a happy state of 

 obscurity. Most of them only venture out at night, whilst 

 during the day-time, especially in dry weather, they remain 

 secluded under stones or in worm-burrows. 



They must be put down as distinctly injurious animals to 

 the gardener. In the green-house they lurk in immense num- 

 bers about the bottom of flower-pots. There they eat the 

 tender tips of the roots, or, emerging at night, climb the plant 

 and feast on the young leaf-buds. In a fernery they are 

 especially destructive, as the damp which suits ferns is also 

 adapted to their requirements, and often some species of ferns 

 never get a chance of developing their fronds, unless saved by 



