THE GREAT SEA-SLATER OR SEA-WOODLOUSE. 



631 



into the wood instead of driving oblique passages. It proceeds in a very methodical 

 manner, the tunnels being quite straight unless they happen to meet a knot, when they 

 pass round the obstacle and resume their former direction. Small as is this crustacean, 

 hardly larger indeed than a grain of rice, it is a sad pest wherever submarine timber is 

 employed, for it works with great energy, and its vast numbers quite compensate for 

 the small size of each individual. It appears to attack equally any kind of wood, 

 though its progress is slower in oak and other harder woods than in deal. Sometimes 

 it is found attacking the same timber as the chelura. 



As with most of these creatures, the male is smaller than the female, being about 

 one-third her size. The female may be distinguished by the pouch in which the eggs 

 and afterwards the young are carried. About six or seven young are generally found 

 in the pouch. 



The Gribble is ashen gray in color, with darker eyes. The timber into which these 

 creatures have been boring looks very like old worm-eaten furniture. The creature is 

 able to roll itself into a nearly spherical form, like the well-known pill-woodlouse. The 

 tail is composed of many segments, and the antennas are in pairs, set above each other. 



B. GREAT SEA-SLATER.-L/^/a oceanic*. 



A. QRIBBLE. Llmnorla terebrans. E, F. ARMADILLO WOODLOUSE.-Annf///o vulgtrls. 



Q. WATER ttOQ.LOUSE.Asellus aguatlcus. C,, D. WOODLOUSE Porcelllo scaber. 



AT fig. B is seen a creature much resembling the common woodlouse. This is the 

 GREAT SEA-SLATER or SEA-WOODLOUSE, a species which, though extremely plentiful, is 

 not seen as often as it might be imagined, owing to its extremely retiring habits and 

 hatred of light. The Sea-slater lives on the stone and rocks of the sea-shore, and hides 

 itself carefully during the day in the crevices, its flattened body enabling it to crawl 

 into very small chinks. At early morning, however, and in the evening, these creatures 

 may be found by thousands, and any one who will take the trouble to search the rocks 

 by the aid of a "bull's eye " lantern will find himself repaid by the vast number of 

 nocturnal animals that have ventured out of their dens. 



The female carries her young in a kind of pouch formed by the development of a 

 number of horizontal plates along the abdomen. They remain in this natural cradle 

 for some time, and even after they are able 1p run about, may be seen clinging to their 

 parent. Mr. Tuffen West tells me that on one occasion he picked up a very large 

 Sea-slater, but nearly let it fall again, startled by seeing four or five little ones run 



