es 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 larvae 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 individuals; so
have these vegetable depredators been provided with foes who pursue and
feed greedily upon them. These are of widely different genera; but
instead 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 little silvery creature (_Lepisma_), called by
Europeans the "fish-insect."[2]

[Footnote 1: Of the first of these, three species have been noticed in
Ceylon, all with the common characteristics of being nocturnal, very
active, very minute, of a pale chesnut colour, and each armed with a
crab-like claw. They are

_Chelifer Librorum_, Temp.
_Chelifer oblongus_, Temp.
_Chelifer acaroides_, Hermann.

Dr. Templeton appears to have been puzzled to account for the appearance
of the latter species in Ceylon, so far from its native country, but it
has most certainly been introduced from Europe, in Dutch or Portuguese
books.]

[Footnote 2: _Lepisma niveo-fasciata_, Templeton, and _L. niger_, Temp.
It was called "Lepisma" by Fabricius, from its fish-like scales. It has
six legs, filiform antenna, and the abdomen terminated by three
elongated setae, two of which are placed nearly at right angles to the
central one. LINNAEUS states that the European species, with which book
collectors are familiar, was first brought in sugar ships from America.
Hence, possibly, these are more common in seaport towns in the South of
England and elsewhere, and it is almost certain that, like the chelifer,
one of the species found on book-shelves in Ceylon, has been brought
thither from Europe.]