OF HARTING. 337 



many specimens here, of the latter not more than 

 three. Although many species of this family produce 

 a distinct ticking noise at certain seasons of the year, 

 as a signal to their companions, the Anobium tessela- 

 tum is the death-tick or death-watch par excellence, and 

 for ages past has been listened to by the superstitious 

 with a feeling of awe. To any one, who in these days 

 of enlightenment, still entertains the belief that the 

 object of this ticking is to foretel the death of a 

 member of the family then living in the house where 

 it is heard, we have much pleasure in submitting the 

 result of a simple experiment which we have more 

 than once gone through very satisfactorily. We have 

 placed one of these beetles on an uncovered table, and 

 with the point of a pencil we have gently tapped the 

 table ten or a dozen times in rapid succession, and 

 repeated the tapping several times with a pause of a 

 few seconds between each. In very little more than 

 a minute we have seen the death-tick bring its legs 

 nearly together close to its abdomen, raise the anterior 

 part of its body to an angle with the surface it stood 

 upon, and obligingly shew us how the real ticking is 

 effected. At every stroke it brings its mandibles into 

 forcible contact with the table, by using its feet col- 

 lectively as a pivot, on which the whole body in a 

 rigid state is made to work rapidly up and down, and 

 this performance it willingly repeats as often as it may 

 be called upon to do so. Scolytus destructor and 

 others of the family to which it belongs, which we 

 have collected in the timber yard, carry on their 

 operations chiefly in old elm and ash trees, between 

 the bark and the wood, without penetrating far into 

 the latter. They are said to be very destructive 

 insects, but we believe that they seldom, if ever, 

 attack perfectly healthy young trees; and that their 

 office is simply to hasten the decay of unsound ones. 



Another family, and a very extensive one, of truly 

 destructive beetles, is that of the Weevils. It includes 



Y 



