202 SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the Student who may desire knowledge of the species, is referred. In 

 lieu of description, the accompanying figures (Fig. 60) are presented, 

 which will serve for the identification of the species. They are copied 

 from the plate above referred to. 



Habits of the Psocidae. 



Of the general habits of the Psocidce Westwood remarks that they fre- 

 quent the trunks of trees, palings, old walls, stones covered with lichens, 

 old books, &c., for the purpose of feeding either upon the still more 

 minute animalcule which inhabit those situations, or, more probably, 

 upon the decaying vegetable matter to be there met with. They are ex- 

 tremely active, and when approached, they endeavor to hide themselves 

 by running to the opposite side of the tree, or other object on which 

 they are stationed. The perfect insects are produced toward the end 

 of summer, when they sometimes appear in great numbers. The larvte 

 and pupge are equally active with the imago, from which the former differ 

 in being apterous, while the pupae have rudimental wings (Westw. 

 Classification of Insects, ii, 1840, p. 18). 



The Death-Watch. 



An interesting member of the family is the Clothilla piilsatoria, of 

 which a figure is presented from Packard's Guide, which may not, how- 

 ever, be accepted as a strictly ac- 

 curate one. It is a small white in- 

 sect, often found in old papers, 

 books, exposed collections of in- 

 sects, etc. It occurs both in this 

 country and in Europe, and has 

 obtained, in the latter, the common 

 name of the Death-ivatch, from the 

 tapping noise which it produces 

 resembling the ticking of a watch. 

 To the superstitious of past ages the 

 tick, audible only in quiet and fre- 

 quently heard in the silence of a 

 sickf-room, proceeding from an in- 

 visible source, was regarded as an 

 ill omen, predicting approaching 

 death. A small wood-boring beetle occurring in Europe, Anobiiim tes- 

 selatum Fabr., is also sometimes known as the dcath-tvatch, and two or 

 three other species of the genus have the ability of producing the same 

 ticking sound. 



Fig. 61.— The DeaUx-watch, Clothilla pulsa 

 TORIA, greatly enlarged. 



