OF INSECTS AND REPTILES. 367 



The ova of this elegant little infect are tinctorical, and yield an 

 exquifite vermilion, not volatile and fugitive, but fixed and per- 

 manent, equal to cocheneil, even when aflifted with an acid fait. 

 They are oblong, and firft of a light orange, and afterwards of 

 a deeper colour, as the young come to maturity, which arc not 

 vermicular, but come forth perfect cimices. The tinctorial virtue 

 is the richeft when the ova have acquired their full orange-co- 

 lour. Urinous falts and alcalies change it from a vivid crimfon 

 to an obfcure colour, between a violet and a purple. 



38. The fmall Scarab, called the Death Watch fn}, is frequent" 

 among duft, and in decayed rotten wood, lonely and retired. It 

 is one of the fmalleft of the Vagipennia, of a dark brown, with 

 irregular light brown fpots, the .belly plicated, and the wings 

 under the cafes pellucid, like other beetles, the helmet turned 

 up, as is fuppofed, for hearing ; the upper lip hard and mining. 

 By its regular pulfations, like the ticking of a watch, it fome- 

 times furprifes thofe that are ftrangers to its nature and proper- 

 ties, who fancy its beating portends a family-change, and the 

 fhortening of the thread of life. Put into a box, it may be 

 heard and feen in the act of pulfation, with a fmall probofcis, 

 againft the fide of it ; for food, more probably, than for hyme- 



naeal pleafure, as fome have fancied. 



i .. * * 



Reptiles furnifhed vriihfoellt, as the land, pond, and river-cockle*, 



are found in confiderable numbers. 



39. In winter, the great Garden-Cochlea fo), is ufually feen 

 hanging in clufters in the cavities of the rocks at the Hermitage, near 



Work- 



(n) Scarabacus galeatusPulfator. 



(o) Cochlea citrina aut leucophaea, non raro unicolor, interdum tamen unica, interdum 

 etiam duabus, aut tribus, aut quatuor, plerumque yero quinque fafciis pullis diftin&a. 



Lift. 



