Octqbetc, 1908.] 36 



caught a liish-insect in flagrante deliclu. 

 But that is not surprising, for the fish- 

 insect is a creature of the night, coming 

 out from its lair, like rats and black- 

 beetles, only when the lights are extin- 

 guished. There is, however, strong cir- 

 cumstantial evidence against the fish- 

 insect ; he is always to be found near 

 the place where the offence has been 

 committed. 



The men of science equally with " the 

 man in the street " shares Mr. Rooke's 

 view that fish-insects are injurious to 

 books. 



Mr. Blades in his work, entitled " The 

 Enemies of Books" writes: "there is, too, 

 a small silvery insect (Lepisma) which I 

 have often seen in the backs of neglect- 

 ed books, but his ravages are not of 

 much importance." The American En- 

 tomologist Packard states that the 

 Lepismatidae are sometimes injurious 

 to papers and books." According to 

 him Lepisma domestical has injured 

 books in the library of Wellesly College. 



The Anglo-Indian entomologist, Mr. 

 E. P. Stebbing, believes that the fish- 

 insect " perhaps does the most damage 

 in libraries and to pictures. In the 

 latter it apparently feeds upon the 

 saccharine matter used in mounting 

 the picture in its frame," 



Sir J. E. Tennent, however, holds a 

 very different opinion of fish-insects, 

 believing them to be most useful crea- 

 tures. He describes them as "foes who 

 pursue and feed greedily upon" the 

 hordes of minute insects which destroy 

 books. He adds "instead of their 

 services bring gratefully recognised 

 these insects are popularly branded as 

 accomplices in the work of destruction. 

 One of these ill-used creatures is a tiny 

 tail-less scorpion (Bhelifer), and the 

 other is the pretty little silvery crea- 

 ture (Lepisma), called by Europeans the 

 fish-insect. Like the Chelifer, it shuns 

 the light, hiding in chinks till sunset, 

 and is actively engaged throughout the 

 night feasting on the acari and soft- 

 bodied insects which assail books and 

 papers. There are thu s two opinions 

 regarding the character of the fish- 

 insect. One is that the fish-insect is a 

 hexapod without guile, a poor dog who 

 unjustly has been given a bad name ; 

 the other is that the fish-insect is the 

 arch-enemy of our books and pictures. 

 It behoves us to decide which of these 

 two is the true one, for upon the result 

 arrived at our policy towards the fish- 

 insects should depend. 



I gave some attention to the subject 

 nd have held each view in turn. ' At 

 ne time I was orthodox in the extreme, 



! Live Stock. 



then I became heterodox and was in- 

 clined to side with Tennent ; more 

 mature experience has, however, con- 

 vinced me that the fish-insect is no 

 friend to man. Let me recount the 

 reasons for these changes of opinion. 

 One day I discovered in an old box, 

 which contained neither books nor 

 paper nor indeed anything but dirt, a 

 fish-insect. It is true that it was not 

 of the ordinary species. Its body was 

 black with the exception of a white 

 band running transversely across the 

 hinder part of its back. As the old 

 box was in an empty room, this dis- 

 covery seemed to show that some fish- 

 insects, at any rate, can get along 

 without paper or books. 



On a subsequent occasion in Madras, 

 I saw a dark-coloured fish-insect emerge 

 from a crack between the bricks and 

 the lintel of a gate in a compound 

 wall. It is fairly obvious that that 

 particular fish-insect did not feed upon 

 paper. 



Then again, the fish-insect is obviously 

 not the cause of those round holes 

 often found in the leaves and covers 

 of books. Some of these excavations 

 are nearly an inch in length. The 

 mouth of the fish-insect is not an in- 

 strument capable of boring such a 

 tunnel. Nor is the shape of the tunnel 

 that of the Lepisma's body. 



I then determined to capture some 

 fish-insects and keep them under obser- 

 vation. This resolution seemed to have 

 the effect of producing a dearth of 

 fish-insects in a locality where previously 

 they had appeared to be exceptionally 

 abundant ; many days elapsed before I 

 managed to secure one. If any person 

 desires to rid his house of Lepismatidaa 

 I advise him to make a collection of 

 them. They seem as difficult to collect 

 as five-pound notes. Having at last 

 secured my fish-insect I placed him in 

 a square cigarette box, with a paper 

 of a book, which was already riddled 

 with holes that were the handiwork 

 of some insect. I selected a book of 

 this description, as I am assured that 

 the paper which helps to form most 

 of our modern books is loaded with 

 lead and other impurities to such an 

 extent that the life of the book-worm 

 is now scarcely worth living. The 

 fish-insect did not appear to be 

 enthusiastic over the paper. I had 

 him in that box for three weeks dur- 

 ing which the paper remained altogether 

 unaffected. On the second day of his 

 captivity 1 introduced into his cage a 

 dead mosquito which did seem to 

 excite his curiosity. Later I actually 



