THE DEATH-WATCH : NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 123 



next moment be heard in the interior of the wood a similar noise 

 made in reply." 



There can be no doubt thsit Liitreille did see an Anobiid beetle 

 tapping and making a noise. But was that " vrillette striee " the 

 true A. striatum of Olivier '? I have more than one reason to doubt 

 it. The nomenclature in those days was in a very confused state, 

 and names of species goc mixed up in hopeless fashion. 



My chief reason, however, for doubting it is that, although I 

 have kept near me, both day and night, pieces of wood containing 

 beetles of that species, and for over a month in their pairing 

 season, I have never heard any noise made by them, nor have I 

 ever seen the least attempt at tapping on their part, " le prelude 

 des amours de ces petits animaux,'" as Latreille said, when I 

 have been watching them for some time before the act of pairing. 

 The beetles, in fact, made no noise whatever about it, but as soon 

 as they met proceeded to get on with their business. 



If I am right in my belief that Derham was referring to 

 A. striatum where he speaks of Scarabceus ligiiivorus, the 

 following passage from one of his papers has an important 

 bearing on this question, and is another reason for my doubt : 

 '• I have in hunting th'e noise sometimes discovered a spider 

 near sometimes the small S. lignivorus which eateth the 

 little holes in the wood, which hath been commonly taken for 

 the death-watch. These, I gues't might make the clicking 

 noise, and, therefore, with all nicety watch'd them. But found 

 that altho' the beating continued, the insects did not stir in 

 the least nor were in any way affected. So with all diligence 

 I still pursued my inquiry, which was the cause of my discovery 

 of the real thing. And I have so many years acquainted 

 myself with all the noises of the death-watch kind that 

 (altho' I seldom love to speak confidently, yet) I can assure 

 everyone that there are but two sorts of them in those parts 

 of England where I have been, viz. the few quick beats of the 

 S. sonicephalus (as Swammerdam hath nam'd it) described by 

 Mr. Allen, and the longer and more leisurely beats of that 

 insect I have now been speaking of." The insect he was 

 speaking of was his P. pidsatorius, and the Scarahceus described 

 by Allen, who gave it the name pulsator, was undoubtedly the 

 species known as A. tesseUatum. Allen (1698) was, in fact, the 

 first writer to give a rather full description of the "death-watch " 

 beetle and an enlarged figure of it, and so has enabled us to 

 identify with certainty the species he was writing about ; but 

 he was by no means the fir-st lo recognise that the beetle was 

 a death-watch. 



The name "death-watch" was, no doubt, originally applied 

 to the noise only, or to the something unknown at the time 

 and left to the imagination to suggest which was the source of 

 that mvsterious noise. Whether it be true or not, as some 



