Account of Bugs fo7ind in hoIJoiu Trees. 57 



»ot been able to afTumc an extra fixation of oxygen in (ilice- 

 ous iron fiones as an vmiverfal principle, 1 would not \vifli to 

 apply it, in any great degree, to the I'oKuion of the prefent 

 theory, feeing the caufes already advanced arc fufficient lor 

 an explanation of the whole phenomenon. 



VIII. Account of Bugs found In hoUoiv Trees, tvith Ohferva- 

 t'lons on that Phenomenon. By S, Oedman *. 



I 



T is a well known prejudice among the cpuntr}' people in 

 Sweden, that they believe the houfe bug takes up its relidencfe 

 in the common yellow wall lichen, wliich grows under the 

 juniper buflies, &c. ; but, as far as I have been able to 

 learn, no cntomologift ever yet found the real houfe bug in 

 Handing trees, and therefore the followinc; new obfen^ation- 

 feems to be worthy of attention. Lait Auguft fomc work- 

 men, who were cutting wood on aii illand in Namdo 

 Sound, fat down under a hollow alder tree in order to eat 

 their dinner. One of them having accidentally made a noife 

 near the trunk, aroufed a bat {"Jefp. muri?tus), which was 

 immediately feen to fly out from a hole in the fide of it. 

 Being defirous to know whether there were any more animals 

 of the fame kind in the trunk, thefe wood-cutters eave it a 

 violent ftroke, and a mafs was heard to drop, which one of 

 them pulled out with his hand, and found to conlift merely 

 of bugs. It is impoffible they could be deceived in regard 

 to vermin fo wpll known; and what rendered the circum- 

 stance ftill more certain, was, that they found under the 

 wings of the bat, real bugs, which had taken up their abode 

 there, together with the ufual infeCls that infcll thefe ani- 

 mals. The. whole quantity of bugs amounted to about three 

 qparts. M. Blix, who was at great pains to examine thig 

 phenomenon more narrowly, found in flic bottom of the 



• From New Tianr.iilions of the Academy of Sciences >t Stockliohii, 

 vol. X. 



hollow 



