984 DIVISION III. ARTICULATED ANIMALS.—CLASS IV. INSECTA. 
houses, where they do much injury, in the larva state, by gnawing furniture, 
books, &e., which they pierce with little round holes, like those made by a 
fine drill. Their excrement forms the fine white powder observed in the 
holes of worm-eaten wood. Other larve feed upon flowers, wafers, collec- 
tions of birds, insects, &c. The two sexes, when calling each other during 
the period of their amours, beat with their jaws upon the wood-work on 
which they are stationed, for a succession of times, mutually replying to 
each other. This is the cause of the noise, similar to the quickened ticking 
of a watch, which is often heard, especially in old houses, and which has 
received from the superstitious the name of the Death-watch. Anobi‘um 
striatum, Oliv. (A. pertinax, Fabr.), is of a uniform brownish-black 
color, and is very common in houses. A. pertinax, Linn., derives its spe- 
cific name from the pertinacity with which it maintains its attempt at decep- 
tion, preferring, according to De Geer, to suffer death under a slow fire, 
rather than give the least sign of life. 
Exvatrer. — The Elateridw are rather large insects, often of hard texture, 
haying the prosternum prolonged into a point, and the antenne indented 
saw-wise. They have the power of jumping when placed on their backs, 
and of alighting again on their legs: hence their name of Elater (derived 
from the same root as the word elastic). They produce, in leaping, one sharp 
rap, and often knock many raps when they are prevented from projecting them- 
selves. This is the mechanism which permits the Skip-jack to execute these 
movements. It bends itself upwards by resting on the ground by its head and 
the extremity of the abdomen, and then it unbends itself suddenly, like a 
spring; the point at the end of the thorax penetrates into the hollow of the 
next ring; the back then strikes with force against the plane on which it 
rests, and the animal is projected into the air. It repeats this manceuvre till 
it finds itself on its belly ; for its legs are too short to allow of its turning 
over. Its structure supplies it with the means and the strength of rebound- 
ing as many times as it falls on its back, and it can thus raise itself more 
than twelve times the length of its body. 
In America are found phosphorescent Elateride. These are the Py- 
rophori, which the Spaniards of South America call by the name of Cucuyos. 
They have at the base of their thorax two small, smooth, and brilliant spots, 
which sparkle during the night; the rings of the abdomen also emit a light. 
They give light sufficient to enable one to read at a little distance. The 
Pyrophorus noctilucris is yery common in Havana, in Brazil, in Guiana, 
in Mexico, &c., and may be seen at night in great numbers in the foliage 
of trees. At the time of the Spanish conquest, a battalion, just disem- 
barked, did not dare to engage with the natives, because it took the Cu- 
cuyos, which were shining on the neighboring trees, for the matches of the 
