SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WALL PAPER, BOOKS, ETC. 



( i 



difficult to capture, and being clothed with smooth, glistening scales, it 

 will slip from between the fingers and is almost impossible to secure 

 without crushing or damaging. It is one of the most serious pests in 

 libraries. x)arti('ularly to the binding of books, and will frequently eat 

 off the gold lettering to get at the paste beneath, or, as rei)orted bj- 

 Mr. P. Iv. Uhler, of Baltimore, often gnaws off' white slips glued on the 

 backs of books. Heavily glazed paper seems very attractive to this 

 insect, and it has frequently happened that the labels in museum col- 

 lections have been disfigured or destroyed by it, the glazed surface 

 having been entirely 

 eaten off. In some 

 cases books printed on 

 heavily sized paper 

 will have the surface 

 of the leaves a good 

 deal scraped, leaving 

 only the portions cov- 

 ered by the ink. It will 

 also eat any starched 

 clothing, linen, or cur- 

 tains, and has been 

 known to do very se- 

 rious damage to silks 

 which had probably 

 been stiffened with 

 sizing. Its damage in 

 houses, in addition to 

 its injury to books, 

 consists in causing 

 the wall paper to scale 

 off by its feeding on 

 the starch i^aste. It 

 occasionally gets into 

 vegetable drugs or 

 similar nuiterial left 

 undisturbed for long- 

 periods. It is reported also to eat occasionally into carpets and plush- 

 covered furniture, but this is oi^en to question. 



The silver fish belongs to the lowest order of insects — the Thysa- 

 nura — is wingless, and of very simple structure. It is a worm like 

 insect about one third of an inch in length, tapering from near the 

 head to the extremity of the body. The head carries two i)rominent 

 antenna^, and at the tip of the body are three long, bristle shaped 

 appendages, one pointing directly backward and the other two extend- 

 ing out at a considerable angle. The entire surface of the body is cov- 

 ered with very minute scales like those of a moth. Six legs spring 



Fig. 33. Lepisma domestica: adult iVmak- — enlarged (original) 



