SILVER FISHES 119 



XXIV. SILVER FISHES. 



Some people have in their kitchens and pantries great 

 numbers of silver fishes. They shelter by day in chinks 

 and recesses, like cockroaches or crickets, but when all is 

 dark and quiet they come out to feed. In factories and 

 shops, especially where grain, crumbs, sugar or other 

 vegetable food is to be procured, silver fishes sometimes 

 abound, and when the shutters are opened of a morning 

 hordes of these insects, large and small, may be seen fleeing 

 from the light, or as I rather think, from the sound of 

 footsteps ; in a perfectly still place they may sometimes 

 be seen to feed tranquilly in a pretty good light. The full 

 grown silver fish is only one-third of an inch long, so that 

 they must be reckoned among the smaller insects. The 

 body resembles in shape half of a carrot which has been 

 sliced from end to end along its middle line. The thick 

 end is towards the head. The thorax, which bears six 

 rather long legs, is of nearly uniform width, and the 

 abdomen steadily tapers backwards. From the small head 

 stand off two long many-jointed antennae, and the hinder 

 end bears three tails, each of many joints. Two black 

 eye-clusters appear on the sides of the head when it is 

 examined with a lens. The legs are flattened at the base 

 like those of a cockroach, and are thus fitted for creeping 

 into narrow spaces. On the under side of the abdomen 

 are two pairs of minute jointed prominences, which spring 

 from the last segment but one and the last but two. The 

 shape of this little insect, its gleaming white colour, and 

 the shining scales which it leaves on the fingers when 

 captured, no doubt suggested the name of silver fish. 

 Similar names are used both in France and Germany 

 (poisson d' argent ; Silberftschchen). 



The eggs are laid in crannies, and produce small larvae 

 very like the parent except in size. The tails of the larva 

 are. comparatively short, and the two pairs of prominences 



