LIVING in chinks and crannies of ranges in our homes, 

 and occasionally in bookcases and closets where 

 glutinous and sugary matters abound, but which has prob- 

 ably not been met with elsewhere, is a strange but beautiful 

 little creature which, as far as can be determined, goes 

 through the brief round of its existence without a name to 

 distinguish it from its fellows. 



Few entomologists have given any special attention to its 

 family relationships. The possession of certain bristle-like 

 appendages which terminate the abdomen, and which are no 

 doubt comparable with the abdominal legs of the Myrio- 

 pods, or Thousand Legs, classes it with the Bristle-tails, or 

 Lepismas. In general form, a likeness to the larva of Perla, 

 a net-veined neuropterous insect, is manifest, or to the narrow- 

 bodied species of Blattariae, or Cockroaches, when divested 

 of wings. 



Lepisma saccharina, of Europe, which is indistinguishable 

 from our ordinary American form, is far from uncommon in 

 old, damp houses. Its structure is less complicated than 

 the heat-loving species to which I have alluded, and there 

 are likewise differences of habits which show themselves to 

 the close investigator of natural phenomena. 



Not unlike the cockroaches, which our little denizen of 

 the hearth somewhat vaguely resembles in form, it affects 

 hot, dry localities, and is always astir at nights in quest of 

 its fare, for it disdains the light of the day and the conse- 

 quent publicity of its deeds of shame and plunder. 



Many a housewife in the discharge of duty has unearthed, 

 so to speak, the miscreant from its hidden retreat, and sought 



