I4 THE BRITISH WOODLICE. 
so in fact, that any of his species that happen to find him will 
attack him and eat all his front half, rejecting, however, his now 
hardened tail-end. 
Provided that the moulting woodlouse has survived (and in 
captivity, to ensure this, he must be isolated), after three days 
his jaws will be sufficiently hardened to allow of his eating, and 
usually he first of all devours the second half of his cast skin. 
The operation of moulting does not occupy quite so long a time 
in the case of young examples. Specimens half-an-inch long do 
not moult more than once in six months and show but little 
increase in size after the process. 
Woodlice do not appear to live on either animal or vegetable 
food alone, but adopt a mixed diet. It is, however, owing to 
their attacks upon cultivated plants that the creatures are 
looked upon as pests by the horticulturalist. The animals feed 
either in the night or in the very early morning, on seedlings, 
orchid tubers, mushrooms, or anything that comestohand. Few 
of the accounts, however, of their ravages, mention that the 
crustaceans have been caught absolutely in the act of doing 
the damage ascribed to them. Some careful inquiries have 
nevertheless enabled us to discover several observers who 
have watched woodlice feeding. Mr. F. V. Theobald, of Wye 
College, and one of the students at Swanley Horticultural 
College are among the number. The former hasalso given us an 
account of the methods, out of many tried, which he has found 
most successful for getting rid of the crustaceans. Out of doors 
trapping with moss, sacking or horse-dung is best. In glass 
houses, fumigation with hydro-cyanic acid gas has cleared them 
out, and poison baits, especially potatoes cut and soaked in 
white arsenic, have done some good, Stable manure is especially 
favourable to these creatures, particularly when it is used “ long ”: 
in this condition it should therefore be avoided. 
It is interesting to note how the woodlice in winter simply 
remain where they happen to be so long as there is sufficient 
moisture, though they are ready to run about as rapidly, fora 
time, as in summer, should they happen to be disturbed. 
No doubt many points of inter-relation between woodlice 
and other animals remain to be discovered. Mr. John W. Odell 
tells us that on Exmoor, in the open, he found no Avmadillidia, 
though other forms occurred under nine out of every ten stones 
