248 LEP1SM&. 



eyes than mine now are, and perhaps exceptional 

 weather to ensure a glimpse of nature on the 

 prowl ; at any rate, I have not been very fortu- 

 nate in that way. My attention during the past 

 year has been specially directed to house-dwelling 

 creatures, and my rambles have been carried on 

 indoors instead of in the garden. When I think of 

 the life-histories of the Cork Moth, of the various 

 Cloth Moths, of the Death-Watch, of the beetles 

 I have found at work upon the specimens in my 

 museum, of the Solitary bees and wasps in the 

 crevices and angles of the outer brickwork of the 

 house, and, finally, of the creature which I am 

 now about to describe, I think it must be admitted 

 that there is a field for entomological study inside 

 as well as outside our dwellings. 



Remembering that I once caught sight of some 

 silvery fish-like insects upon the kitchen hearth, 

 and afterwards watched a little pair of the same 

 kind moving below a window-ledge in a bed- 

 room, I determined to devote a little time to their 

 investigation. I learned that they were called 

 Lepisma saccherina, and that Linnaeus formed 

 the genus, and named it from the Greek word 



