Report of the State Entomologist. 131 



Its Abundance in Albany, N. Y. 

 In a communication made by me to the Country Gentleman, in 1880, 

 it was stated that " j)robably as many as fifty examples have come 

 under my observation during the ten years that had elapsed since the 

 first notice of it here." During the subsequent seven years, it has 

 continued to increase steadily in number. It has been frequently 

 brought to me from residents of various parts of the city, as some- 

 thing observed for the first time in a single example; and numerous 

 inquiries have been made of its habits, whether or not it was a new 

 depredator on carpets or clothing, to be added to the clothes-moth 

 and carpet-beetle, or if it was in any way injurious, as it was occurring 

 in such numbers as to entitle it to be ranked as a household pest. In 

 one instance, in the pulling down of an old wooden building in Hud- 

 son avenue, a multitude of them were discovered in removing the 

 wainscotting of the basement floor. 



Its Habitat. 



It has usually been reported from basements, and it is, perhaps, 

 more frequently seen in the vicinity of the hot-water pipes — the 

 favorite haunt of another pest of many city homes, viz., the Croton 

 bug, Ectobia Germanica. It is not limited, however, to this portion of 

 dwellings, for its long, flexible, and agile leg^j, in its travels for food, 

 serve for its distribution through all the apartments. It has been seen 

 scurrying over the parlor carpets, and while this notice is being 

 written, it has been brought to me from the third floor of a dwelling, 

 where it was found quietly resting upon a damp piece of linen cloth 

 hung up for drying. 



A young individual, the extended length of which was less than 

 three-fourths of an inch (body 0.18 in., antennse 0.33 in., hind legs 

 0.21 in.), was taken February second from the water of an aquarium 

 in my oflice, on the fourth floor of the Capitol. 



What are its Habits. 

 It will be a relief (in one direction, at least) to know, in considera- 

 tion of its multiplication as a household pest, that the new-comer will 

 not eat carpets, or clothing, or manufactured fabrics of any kind; 

 nor does it emulate the roach and the Croton-bug in their attack and 

 defilement of various articles of domestic food. Its structure has 

 made it carnivorous, and it is believed to subsist, after the manner of 

 its allies, upon other living creatures which its rapid movements 

 enable it easily to catch. For this purpose, it has been provided with 

 peculiar jaws for grasping and holding, which are probably chan- 

 nelled for the injection of a poisonous fluid into the body of its 



