THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 227 



when left undisturbed, may become very obnoxious. The question, Why 

 has that not been observed long ago ? may be answered by the well 

 known " I awoke one morning and found myself famous ! " I think there 

 is a very simple explanation. There are so many rogues who work in the 

 same way, that the swiftest one to disappear is often easily overlooked. 

 Many times I have been told by ladies that their silk dresses, always 

 black ones, had been destroyed by carpet bugs, and have always answered 

 that the carpet bugs only attack wool. Indeed, I confess that I have only 

 recently learned that these aristocratic desires belong to the Silver-fish. 



If we tabulate all the facts, we find directly that all damages, except 

 those to paper and its combinations, have been inflicted on silks, clothing 

 and muslin curtains which were invariably starched or finished with some 

 stiffening size, making them more easily eaten or eroded. Secondly, the 

 backs of books have been more or less seriously injured. But just here 

 paste had been used in quantity. The gold lettering of the backs is com- 

 monly done by putting the gold on paste and burning the hot brass letters 

 into the back. I have been assured that in one case only the gold of the 

 lettering had disappeared. There is no wonder that silken and paper 

 tapestry has been eaten ; but it is to be hoped that the industry now com- 

 mon of making paper hangings solely of arsenic may induce Lepisma to 

 emigrate to more hospitable quarters. 



That labels in collections have been destroyed, is observed here, in 

 France and in N. S. Wales. All those labels were starched. Prints have 

 been destroyed in England ; letters, when lying loose or in heaps, and 

 government records in England, in N. South Wales and in Boston. I 

 think many gentlemen present will find the most rascally instance of de- 

 struction is the making erasures in account books in the safe. 



After all these facts, there is no doubt that maps, engravings, collec- 

 tions of photographs, herbariums, even label catalogues, are in evident 

 danger. But if we look more closely at the injuries reported, we find 

 directly that all such papers, when pressed firmly together, were not 

 reached by Lepisma, and in this way a large number of accidents may be 

 avoided. Engravings and maps, which would suffer if pressed too hard, 

 will be perfectly safe in simple pasteboard boxes, provided that they are 

 made to close perfectly, so that it is impossible for Lepisma to find an 

 entrance. Insect powder sprinkled in the nooks and corners where 

 Lepisma is often observed — in Cambridge, behind the kitchen stove or 



