132 
CONCERNING DEATH-WATCHES. 
[Nature and Art, October 1, 1866. 
These are given in pretty quick succession, and are repeated 
at uncertain intervals. In old houses, where the insects are 
numerous, they may be heard, if the weather be warm, almost 
every hour of the day. In beating, the insect raises itself 
upon its hinder legs, and with the body somewhat inclined, 
beats its head with great force and agility against the place 
on which it stands. This insect, which is the real death- 
watch of the vulgar, must not be confounded with a minuter 
insect, not much unlike a louse, which makes a ticking noise 
like a watch ; but instead of beating at intervals, it con- 
tinues its noise for a considerable length of time without 
intermission. This latter insect, the Termes pulsatorium, 
Linn., belongs to a very different tribe (Neuroptera). It is 
usually found in old wood, decayed furniture, museums, and 
neglected books. The female lays her eggs, which are ex- 
ceedingly small, in dry, dusty places, where they are likely 
to meet with least disturbance. They are generally hatched 
about the beginning of March, a little sooner or later, 
according to the weather. After leaving the eggs, the 
insects are so small as scarcely to be discerned without the 
use of a glass. They remain in this larva state about two 
months, somewhat resembling in appearance the mites in 
cheese, after which they undergo their change into the 
perfect insect. They feed on dead flies and other insects ; 
and often from their numbers and voracity very much 
deface cabinets of natural history. They subsist on various 
other substances, and may often be observed carefully 
hunting for nutritious particles amongst the dust in which 
they are found, turning it over with their heads and searching 
about somewhat in the manner of swine. Many live through 
the winter buried deep in the dust to avoid the frost.’ ” 
The above extract contains nothing more than 
what had been previously communicated to the 
Royal Society by Mr. Derham in his “Supplement 
to the Account of the Pediculus pulsatorius ,” and 
it loses its importance from the fact that it does not 
appear to be the result of personal observation. 
The seventh volume of the “ Magazine of In atural 
History” (pp. 468-473), contains some original 
observations on the death-watches, from which it is 
clear that another beetle besides the Anobium 
tesselatum produces the sounds in question ; this is 
the Anobium striatum ; and from the investigations 
of Mr. Westwood, there seems no reason whatever 
to doubt that similar noises are produced by the 
larva, as well as the perfect insects. Anyone who 
has examined the larva of Anobium tesselatum , and 
observed its strong teeth, can readily understand : 
that it is quite able to make the noise attributed 
to it, by gnawing the wood with its jaws. 
That the Atropos pulsatorius is the cause of the 
sounds under consideration is denied by Van der 
Hoeven, who thus writes : — 
“ This insect is commonly found on wood, upon walls, in 
old papers, &c. ; it has superficially a resemblance to a 
louse, but runs very rapidly. The Latin specific name is 
derived from the idea that the ticking in old furniture and 
door posts, which superstition often receives as a bad omen, 
is caused by this insect ; on the contrary, they are small 
beetles which cause the tapping sound ” ( Handbook of 
Zoology, Lond., 1856, i., p. 426). 
Westwood, on the other hand, allows to the 
Atropos 2 iulsatorius the claim to be considered a 
death-watch, but it does not appear that this eminent 
entomologist had any practical acquaintance with 
the fact. 
Mr. F rank Cowan in his recently published book * 
# Cv.tious Pacts in the History of Insects. Philadephia, 
1865 (p. 58). 
(p. 58) assigns the name of death-watch to the 
Anobium tesselatum alone, taking no notice of the 
Atropos beyond what is given in the following 
sentence — - 
“ Authors were formerly not agreed concerning the insect 
from which this sound of terror proceeded, some attributing 
it to a kind of wood-louse, others to a spider.” 
These are the identical words of Kirby and 
Spence. Being anxious to ascertain whether any 
living entomologists had personal experience of the 
noise asserted to be produced by the A tropos pulsa- 
torius in the writings of some naturalists, and denied 
in those of others, I wrote to Mr. Frederick Smith 
to ask whether he had any knowledge of the matter. 
He replied that he was unacquainted with any 
ticking noise produced by the Atropos, but, of 
course, had frequently heard the sounds of Anobium. 
In a subsequent letter he writes : — - 
“ Last evening (December 4, 1865), I brought the subject 
of the death-watch, &c., before the meeting of the Entomo- 
logical Society, but no one had any knowledge of Anobium, 
Atropos, or any insect tapping ; many had, of course, heard 
the ticking inside chairs, tables, old chests, &c. ; that was 
all I could get at.” 
Mr. Smith could not conceive it possible that so 
soft and delicate a creature as Atropos could pro- 
duce any sound whatever. 
Soon after this I was favoured with another 
communication from Mr. Frederick Smith — always 
so obliging in rendering assistance to inquirers — 
together with a letter from Mr. Doubleday ; this 
latter gentleman, from his own observations, en- 
tertained no doubt that Atropos pidsatorius was 
one of the insects that produced the sounds in 
question ; and an interesting communication from 
Mi - . William Noble to a recent number of “ Science 
Gossip” (April, 1866), seems to place the matter 
beyond all doubt, and to verify the remarks of 
Baxter, Derham, and others. Mr, Noble writes as 
follows : — 
“ On the night of Sunday, the 23rd of July last, I was 
sitting reading in my drawing-room, after the rest of the 
family had retired to their rooms, when my attention was 
attracted by what sounded like the loud ticking of a watch 
near to me. My first impression was, that my own watch, 
from some occult cause, was making much more noise than 
usual ; but on pulling it out I at once ascertained that it 
was not thence that the sound proceeded. Ultimately I 
traced it to the mantel-piece, though scarcely (on this 
occasion) to any specific part of it. So remarkable was the 
imitation of the tick of a watch, so perfect the metallic ring, 
and so utterly unlike anything which could conceivably be 
produced by an insect, that I fetched down one lady who 
had not commenced undressing, to come and hear it. After 
this we used to amuse ourselves every night by listening to 
the ticking, until eventually, in October, I determined to find 
out by what means it was produced. Upon careful ex- 
amination I traced it to one of the lustres, which by way of 
experiment, I removed to a distant table. The first dis- 
turbance silenced the insect, but a few minutes’ quiet re- 
assured it, and on it went again. Finally, I tracked it to a 
French paper-rose surrounding the base of the candle ; and 
upon striking this sharply upon the table there fell out a 
specimen of the Atropos pulsatorius. This I examined under 
the microscope, and I must say that I was quite as much 
astonished as Mr. Smith could possibly be to see the extra- 
ordinary minuteness and delicacy of the creature, which had 
.so perfectly similated the hard metallic ring of a chronometer 
