BOOK-LOVERS. 
IVING in chinks and crannies of ranges in our homes, 
and occasionally in bookcases and closets where 
glutinous and sugary matters abound, but which has prob- 
ably not been met with elsewhere, is a strange but beautiful 
little creature which, as far as can be determincd, goes 
through the brief round of its existence without a name to 
distinguish it from its fellows. 
Few entomologists have given any special attention to its 
family relationships. The possession of certain bristle-like 
appendages which terminate the abdomen, and which are no 
doubt comparable with the abdominal legs of the Myrio- 
pods, or Thousand Legs, classes it with the Bristle-tails, or 
Lepismas. In general form, a likeness to the larva of Perla, 
a net-veined neuropterous insect, is manifest, or to the narrow- 
bodied species of Blattariz, or Cockroaches, when divested 
of wings. 
Lepisma saccharina, of Europe, which is indistinguishable 
from our ordinary American form, is far from uncommon in 
old, damp houses. Its structure is less complicated than 
the heat-loving species to which I have alluded, and there 
are likewise differences of habits which show themselves to 
the close investigator of natural phenomena. 
Not unlike the cockroaches, which our little denizen of 
the hearth somewhat vaguely resembles in form, it affects 
hot, dry localities, and is always astir at nights in quest of 
its fare, for it disdains the light of the day and the conse- 
quent publicity of its deeds of shame and plunder. 
Many a housewife in the discharge of duty has unearthed, 
so to speak, the miscreant from its hidden retreat, and sought 
