3B0 INSECTS. 



head. The prevailing number of distinct strokes which it beats 

 is from seven to nine, or eleven ; which very circumstance may per* 

 haps add, in some degree, to the curious character which it bears 

 among the vulgar. These sounds or beats are given in pretty quick 

 succession, and are repeated at uncertain intervals ; and in old houses 

 where the insects are numerous, may be heard at almost every hour 

 of the day ; especially if the weather be warm. The sound exactly 

 resembles that which may be made by beating moderately hard 

 with the nail on a table. The insect is of a colour so nearly resem- 

 bling that of decayed wood, viz. an obscure greyish brown, that it 

 may for a considerable time elude the search of the enquirer. It is 

 about a quarter of an inch in length, and is moderately thick in pro- 

 portion, and the wing-shells are marked with numerous irregular 

 variegations of a lighter or greyer cast than the ground-colour. In 

 the 20th and 22d volume of the Philosophical Transactions, may be 

 found a description of this species by the celebrated Derhani, with 

 some very just observations relative to its habits and general ap- 

 pearance ; and it seems singular that so remarkable an insect should 

 have almost escaped the notice of more modern entomologists. In 

 the twelfth edition of the Svstema Naturae of Lim;gejs it does not 

 appear; but is probably the Dennestes tesselatus of Fabricius, in 

 which case he seems to have placed it in a wrong genus. Ridicu- 

 lous, and even incredible as it may appear, it is an animal that may 

 in some measure be tamed : at least it may be so far familiarized as 

 to be made to beat occasionally, by taking it out of its confinement, 

 and beating on a table or board, when it will readily answer the 

 noise, and will continue to beat as often as required. 



We must be careful not to confound this animal, which is the 

 real death, watch of the vulgar, emphatically so called, with a much 

 smaller insect of a very different genus, which makes a sound like 

 the ticking of a watch, and continues it for a long time without in- 

 termission. It belongs to a totally different order, and is the Termes 

 pulsatorium of Linnaeus. 



[Naturalist's MiscelL 



