DRAGON-FLIES AND OTHER INSECTS. 243 



fmement will eat raw meat, and even harder sub- 

 stances, approaching to leather, if not leather itself, 

 has been demonstrated. This becomes less sur- 

 prising when a knowledge of their minute anatomy is 

 obtained ; for they possess gizzards furnished with an 

 elaborate arrangement of gastric teeth, as most micro- 

 scopists are aware, the gizzard of a cricket being quite 

 a " stock object.'' 



Jaeger says that the youth of Germany are ex- 

 tremely fond of field crickets, so much so, that there 

 is scarcely a boy to be seen who has not several 

 small boxes made expressly for keeping these insects 

 in. So much delighted are they, too, with their 

 music, that they carry these boxes of crickets into 

 their bedrooms at night, and are soothed to sleep 

 with their chirping lullaby. 



Minute Neuropterous insects which might be mis- 

 taken for aphides are not uncommon. These are 

 called the Psoridiz. In all their states they probably 

 feed on dry vegetable substances and lichens. They 

 are universally common, living more or less in societies 

 on tree trunks and palings and amongst the herbage 

 of trees, especially firs, larches, and yews ; and some 

 species in houses and warehouses. The eggs are laid 

 in patches on leaves, bark, or other objects, and the 

 females cover them with a web. Mr. McLachlan be- 

 lieves that both sexes possess the power of spinning a 

 web, not distinguishable from that of spiders. The 

 larvae and pupae greatly resemble the perfect insects. 

 One of these little insects which is found running over 

 books and collections of preserved insects in cabinets, 

 has been supposed to be one of the "death watches, '* 

 R 2 



