INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 239 



have noticed before *, will establish itself upon the bind- 

 ing of a book, and spinning a robe, which it covers with 

 its own excrement^, will do it no little injury. A mite, 

 (Acarifs erudittis, Schrank) eats the paste that fastens 

 the paper over the edges of the binding*, and so loosens 

 if^. I have also often observed the caterpillar of an- 

 other little moth, of which I have not ascertained the 

 species, that takes its station in damp old books, between 

 the leaves, and there commits great ravages ; and many 

 a black-letter rarity, which in these days of Bibliomania 

 would have been valued at its weight in gold, has been 

 snatched by these destroyers from the hands of book- 

 collectors. The little wood-boring beetles before men- 

 tioned {Ayiobiiim pertinax and striatum) also attack 

 books, and will even bore through several volumes. 

 M. Peignot mentions an instance where, in a public li- 

 brary but little frequented, ttcenti/seven folio volumes 

 were perforated in a straight line by the same insect, 

 (probably one of tl)ese species,) in such a manner that 

 on passing a cord through the perfectly round hole 

 made by it, these twenty-seven volumes could be raised 

 at once''. The animals last mentioned also destroy 

 prints and drawings, whether framed, or preserved in 

 a porte-feuille. Our collections of quadrupeds, birds, 

 insects and plants have likewise several terrible insect 

 enemies, which without pity or remorse often destroy 

 or mutilate our most highly prized specimens. Ptinus 

 Fur, L. and Bi/rrhus Musceorum, L,, two minute bee- 

 tles, are amongst the worst, especially the latter, whose 



* See p. 228. *' Reaum. m. 270. 



*^ Sclirank Enum. Ins. Justr. 513. 1058. 

 ** Home's Inlrod. to Bibliogruplnj, i. iil I. 



