380 SUPPLEMENT 



that they recommence to move. They walk slowly, and in 

 an indolent sort of style. They very seldom make any use 

 of their wings, although they are tolerably strong, and much 

 longer than the elytra. 



The larva of these insects, well known by its ravages, is 

 more calculated to fix our attention. Old wood-furniture, 

 worm-eaten, and sifted witli round and cylindrical holes, in- 

 dicate at once its work, and its habitation. It is a small 

 white, soft, and elongated worm, which has six small and 

 short feet. Its head is scaly, and terminated by two jaws in 

 the form of strong and trenchant pincers, which answer the 

 purpose of gnawing the wood on which it is to live, and 

 which it gives back in small and very fine grains, connected 

 together, but which may easily be reduced into an almost 

 impalpable powder, and which fill the little cavities which the 

 larva has just made and abandoned. In proportion as it 

 acquires an increase of growth, it enlarges its dwelling; and 

 when it is come to its full size, and feels the necessity of 

 transformation, it carpets with some threads of silk the 

 bottom of the hole, or canal, which it has hollowed, becomes 

 changed into a nymph, and issues forth in the form of the 

 perfect insect. It is not only in houses that this larva is to 

 be found, but also in fields, gardens, and every where, where 

 there is dry wood, proper to serve it as an asylum, and fur- 

 nish it with aliment- There is one species which works on 

 substances of less hardness than wood. It attacks bread, 

 flour, paste, wafers a long time kept in drawers. It forms 

 furrows and canals in these matters, as the other species do in 

 wood. 



This is the proper place to notice a singular little pheno- 

 menon, and one which has given rise to a number of con- 

 jectures. There is often heard in a chamber, and when 

 one is alone, and a profound silence prevails, a small con- 

 tinued noise, like the ticking of a watch. It ceases the 



