172 THE DEATH WATCH. 



THE celebrated GLOW-WOKM belongs to the typical genus of its family. 



Contrary to the usual rule among insects, where the male absorbs the whole of the 

 beauty, and the female is comparatively dull and sombre in colour and form, the female 

 carries off the palm for beauty, at all events after dusk, the male regaining the natural 

 ascendancy by the light of day. Either through books, or by actual observation, almost 

 every one is familiar with the Glow-worm, and would recognize its pale blue light on a 

 summer's evening. Many, however, if they came across the insect by day, would fail to 

 detect the brilliant star of the night in the dull, brown, grub-like insect crawling slowly 

 among the leaves, and still fewer would be able to distinguish the male, so unlike are the 

 two sexes. 



It has often been said that the female alone is luminous. This, however, is an error, 

 as I have caught numbers of these beetles of both sexes, and always found that the males 

 were gifted with the power of producing the peculiar phosphorescent light, though in a 

 much smaller degree than their mates, the light looking like two small pins' heads of 

 phosphorus upon the end of the tail. 



Seen by day, the male is a much handsomer looking insect than the female, being soft 

 brown in colour, long bodied, and wide winged, altogether beetle-like ; while the female 

 is more like a grub than a perfect insect, has no wings at all, and only the slightest 

 indications of elytra. 



The larva of the Glow-worm feeds upon molluscs, especially upon the smaller snails, 

 which it is able to devour even when retracted within the walls of the shell. In order to 

 cleanse its body from the slime which exudes from the molluscs on which it feeds, and 

 which is poured out with double abundance when they are injured or irritated, the larva 

 of the Glow-worm is furnished with a kind of brushy appendage near the tail, which is 

 thrust from its concealment when wanted, and vigorously applied to the body by means 

 of the flexible joints of the abdomen. 



NEXT to this family is another, called the Telephoridse, which is represented in 

 England by the well known beetles, popularly called, from their red or bluish colours, 

 SOLDIERS and SAILORS. They are found in great quantities in the spring, and upon the 

 umbelliferous flowers they assemble plentifully. They are carnivorous, voracious and 

 combative to a degree, and in my school-days the fashionable spring amusement consisted 

 in setting Soldiers and Sailors to fight with each other. They fly readily, but slowly, and 

 only to short distances, and may be known while in the air by their peculiar attitude, the 

 long body hanging nearly vertically from the wings. 



A VERY destructive family, termed Ptinidse, must now be briefly noticed. To this 

 family belong the insects which are so well known by their labours, though themselves 

 are mostly hidden from sight. Among the Ptinidae are placed the little beetles that eat 

 holes in our furniture, books, &c., and do such irremediable damage in so short a time. 

 Mr. Westwood mentions one instance where a new bedpost was wholly destroyed by one 

 species of these beetles (Ptilinus pectinicornis) in a space of three years. I have seen 

 books fearfully damaged by these insects, which have a habit of boring in a straight line 

 as long as they can find material, and have been known to begin at one end of a shelf 

 full of books, and drill a hole so completely through them, that a string could be threaded 

 through the hole and all the books lifted by it. They do not, however, push their way 

 completely through the substance, in which they have been bred, until they have attained 

 their perfect form, but always leave a slight film of uneaten substance by which they may 

 be concealed. 



The celebrated Death Watch belongs to this family this name being popularly given 

 to several species, such as Anobium striatum and tesselatum, on account of the ticking 

 sound which is made by knocking their heads against the woodwork, and which is used 

 as a signal to their mates. 



Other species feed upon wool, flax, leather, &c., and are terrible pests to the collector, 

 who often finds his museum half-ruined before he has the least suspicion that anything is 

 wrong with it. There is an odd little beetle belonging to this family, called Meziwn 

 sulcdtum, a spider-like looking insect, with a globular body, covered with soft plush-like 



