330 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



transferred one of them to the back of his hand, and 

 prepared to watch its movements with a lens. He thus 

 describes what followed : " Scarcely does the abominable 

 little monster feel the heat of the skin before it lays 

 aside its former disheartened attitude, and begins to 

 feel at ease, its antennae oscillate for joy, and it stretches 

 all six legs complacently out from the body. But 

 though the pleasure and surprise at the sudden trans- 

 portation into congenial surroundings for the first 

 moment eclipse everything else, hunger soon asserts its 

 claim, sharpened as it is by the long fast, which has 

 rendered its stomach and intestines quite transparent. 

 The animal raises itself on its legs, walks on a few steps, 

 seeking and feeling its way with its antennae, while we 

 follow it with the magnifier. Presently it stops, draws 

 in its legs a little, arches its back, bends the head down 

 towards the skin at an oblique angle, while it pushes a 

 small dark and narrow organ repeatedly forward, and 

 draws it back through the fore end of the head ; at last 

 it stands still, with the point of the head firmly abutted 

 against the skin." While the animal was in this posi- 

 tion, he seized it gently with forceps, and endeavoured 

 to detach it from the skin, hoping thus to see the 

 extended proboscis. But in this he was disappointed, 

 for though a slight resistance to his efforts was ex- 

 perienced, showing that the proboscis had really pene- 

 trated the skin, yet when the insect was detached, no 

 trace of a proboscis, or anything of the sort, could be 

 seen; it had instantly shot back into the head, and 

 returned to the normal position of rest. This method, 

 therefore, having proved ineffectual, the experimenter 

 decided for a time to confine his observations to the 

 upper surface of the insect during the progress of its 

 meal, so as to watch, through the transparent skin, the 



