132 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



a great deal of harm to the drag 

 and tobacco trade. The latter, i. 

 e., the mature insects, are among 

 the smallest winged insects 

 known; but the silver fish is not 

 winged, nor does it, as a rule, feed 

 on drug store articles as greedily 

 as those minute beetles; but they 

 nevertheless, like in the men- 

 tioned case, occasionally perforate 

 herb packages, especially of old 

 goods, which have not been 

 handled for years. Their prefer- 

 ence however, is old newspapers 

 and books and paper goods of all 

 kind, and they also p^erforate and 

 feed on wallpaper, linen and 

 silken goods, paper boxes, mu- 

 seum and herbarium articles, etc. 



Their body being, as stated, 

 very brittle when touched, they 

 are not an easy object to capture 

 without mutilating some parts 

 of their anatomy, especially the 

 two long frontal antennae, and 

 the three rear bristle-shaped ap- 

 pendages. 



In looking over some pld li- 

 brary books lately, the first few 

 pages contained a large specimen 

 of one of these "silver fish," 

 about one-half inch long (not in- 

 cluding the long appendages). The 

 usual size is somewhat smaller, 

 and the original photo herein 

 from nature shows the insect mag- 

 nified about five times. 



The text-books do not give a de- 

 tailed description of the nature of 

 the interesting scales covering the 

 body of these insects, anji^I there- 

 fore gave the matter a little closer 

 microscopic attention. The scales 

 are beautifully arranged in rows, 

 and differ in size, etc., according 

 to the different regions of the in- 

 sect's body. Along the mouth 

 parts, numerous long bristles dan 

 be seen, as also along the sides 

 of the body, and the small body 

 scales seen microscopically, resem- 

 ble those of a moth and some but- 

 terflies. These scales are very re- 

 fractive to light, and they give 

 the insect the peculiar silver color 

 and glittering appearance — simi- 

 lar to the glitter of the butterfly's 

 wing-scales. 



Similar to so many other spe- 

 cies of insects injurious to house- 

 hold goods and paperware, the sil- 

 verfish is hard to extinguish when 

 it once has a foothold. Cleanliness 

 and airing of infested articles, de- 

 struction of those found and their 

 larvae and occasional dusting of 

 infested articles with persian in- 

 sect powder (pyrithrum) and 

 placing of camphor along the 

 bookshelves, etc., or camphorine 

 (moth balls), is about the best 

 to do to keep these and allied in- 

 jurious insects in cheek or de- 

 stroying them totally. 



Texas Forest Butterflies 



Through the courtesy of the 

 San Antonio Scioitific Sci-ioiy I 

 take pleasure in submitting two 

 elegant halftone photograph of 

 our Texns huttorflio', iiipiurcd 

 and photo-reproduced by the wri- 

 ter some years ago, the half-tones 

 with matter having been used for 

 a lecture before that society on 

 reptiles and insects peculiar to 

 our semi-tropical Texas climate, 

 and all the halftones in tliis chap- 

 ter show again the excellent high- 



grade work done by the Mills 

 Photo Engraving (_\)nipany of San 

 Antonio. Both these butterflies 

 were captured in the hilly forest 

 regions of the Gallager ranch, 

 Bandera road, and tlie illustration 

 shows them in natural size. 



The beautiful sv,-allow-tailed 

 v/inged specimen (a moth) was 

 of light green, and the other of 

 brilliant golden-yellow colors. At 

 the time of capturing Ihem — late 

 in fall 1904, the woods and prairie 



