560 Insects. 



THE DEATH-WATCH. (Anobium tesselatum.) 



THIS creature is called the Death-Watch, from a super- 

 stitious notion that, when its beating is heard, it is a 

 sign that some one in the house is going to die. The 

 insect lives in wood, and the noise is produced by its 

 striking its head against whatever is near it. These 

 insects, in the larva state, do a great deal of mischief to 

 old furniture, in which they perforate numerous round 

 holes. To enable them to do this they are furnished 

 with two maxillaB formed like two cutting pincers, with 

 the help of which they bore the holes so neatly that the 

 French call them vnllettes, from vrille, a gimlet. They 

 also perforate books in the same way, and thus do much 

 damage in old libraries : 



" Insatiate brute, whose teeth abuse 

 The sweetest servants of the muse ! 

 His roses nipt in every page, 

 My poor Anacreon mourns thy rage ; 

 By thee my Ovid wounded lies ; 

 By thee my Lesbia's sparrow dies ; 

 Thy rabid teeth have half destroyed 

 The work of love in Biddy Floyd ; 

 They rent Belinda's locks away, 

 And spoiled the Blouzelind of Gay ; 

 For all, for every single deed, 

 Relentless justice bids thee bleed. 

 Then fall a victim to the Nine, 

 Myself the priest, my desk the shrine." PABNELL. 



Sometimes two of these insects may be heard ticking, 

 answering each other ; and sometimes the Death- Watch 

 may be made to tick by tapping with the finger-nail 

 upon a table. These creatures imitate death with great 

 exactness when they are caught, or when they think 

 themselves in danger. 



