Chai». XIII.] 



THE FISH-INSECT. 



475 



residence in Ceylon, both on the coast and in the 

 mountains, is the prevalence of damp, and the difficulty 

 of protecting articles liable to injury from this cause. 

 Books, papers, and manuscripts rapidly decay ; especially 

 during the south-west monsoon, when the atmosphere is 

 saturated with moisture. Unless great precautions are 

 taken, the binding fades and yields, the leaves grow 

 mouldy and stained, and letter-paper, in an incredibly 

 short time, becomes so spotted and spongy as to be 

 unfit for use. After a very few seasons of neglect, a 

 book falls to pieces, and its decomposition attracts 

 hordes of minute insects, that swarm to assist in the 

 work of destruction. The concealment of these tiny 

 creatures during daylight renders it difficult to watch 

 their proceedings, or to discriminate the precise species 

 most actively engaged; but there is every reason to 

 believe that the larvse of the death-watch and numerous 

 acari are amongst the most active. As nature seldom 

 peoples a region supplied with abundance of suitable 

 food, without, at the same time, taking measures of 

 precaution against the disproportionate increase of in- 

 dividuals ; so have these vegetable depredators been 

 provided with foes who pursue and feed greedily upon 

 them. These are of widely different genera ; but in- 

 stead of their services being gratefully recognised, they 

 are popularly branded as accomplices in the work of 

 destruction. One of these ill-used creatures is a tiny, 

 tail-less scorpion (Chelifer 1 ), and another is the pretty 



1 Of the first of these, three claw. They are 



species have been noticed in Ceylon, Chelifer Librorum, Temp, 



all with the common characteristics „ oblongits, Temp, 



of being nocturnal, very active, very ,, acaroides, Hermann, 



minute, of a pale chesnut colour, Dr. Templeton appears to have 



and each armed with a crab-like been puzzled to account for the 



