ORDER MALLOPHAGA 



83 



and occur in houses, commonly found among books, old 

 papers, insect collections or herbaria, and which do a great 

 deal of damage in such places. 



The common book louse, Atropos divinatoria, is most 

 abundant in houses among old books. They are too small 

 to be pinned, but they can be mounted on micro slides to 

 good advantage, for study with the microscope. They are 

 about one-sixteenth of an inch in length, rather flat, nearly 

 white, antennffi slender, and eyes quite small. Their man- 

 dibles are strong and they feed on the mucilage and glue or 

 paste of book bindings, on the tissues of preserved insects, 



Fig. 44. — AlrujM:^ difinaloria. 



and they are quite detrimental to collections of plants in 

 herbaria. 



They may be destroyed l)y fumigating with bisulphide 

 of carbon for half an hour or so. They are so very small 

 that it is almost an imi)ossibility to exclude them entirely 

 from any place. 



Order MALLOPHAGA (Bird Lice). 



This order includes the biting lice infesting birds and 

 mammals. They are usually hard and horny and much 

 flattened. They possess mandibulate mouth parts adapted 



