Book-Lice and Their Allies 



the canopies of webs spun over the egg clusters. Here the 

 mother awaits the appearance of her brood, and here the young 

 insects cluster, sallying forth from time to time with the mother 

 in search of food. 



The book-lice belong to another family, the Atropidae. They 

 are very small and some of them have been supposed to make a 

 ticking noise which in olden times caused them to be known as 

 "death watches." 



These little insects are widely distributed, and are commonly 

 seen on library shelves and in old records in closets. They are 

 omnivorous, feeding on any animal or vegetable matter, and are 

 especially fond of the starch paste used in book bindings or under 

 wall paper. They feed on flour and meal, and are often found in 

 natural history collections, living on the specimens. They are 

 sometimes found in straw beds and in the straw coverings of 

 wine bottles. A case has been recorded in Insect Life in which 

 they bred so extensively in a mattress of hair and corn husks 

 that "a pin point could not have been put down without touch- 

 ing one or more of the bugs." They swarmed over the sheets 

 and the walls of the room; bureau draws were swarming with 

 them, and the mattress no doubt contained them by the millions. 



352 



