ber_ and _October, 1663._ I observ'd
likewise several of these very same Creatures traversing a window at
_London_, and looking without the window upon the subjacent wall, I found
whole flocks of the same kind running to and fro among the small groves and
thickets of green moss, and upon the curiously spreading vegetable blew or
yellow moss, which is a kind of a Mushrome or Jews-ear.
These Creatures to the naked eye seemed to be a kind of black Mite, but
much nimbler and stronger then the ordinary Cheese-Mites; but examining
them in a _Microscope_, I found them to be a very fine crusted or shell'd
Insect, much like that represented in the first Figure of the three and
thirtieth _Scheme_, with a protuberant oval shell A, indented or pitted
with an abundance of small pits, all covered over with little white
brisles, whose points all directed backwards.
It had eight legs, each of them provided with a very sharp tallon, or claw
at the end, which this little Animal, in its going, fastned into the pores
of the body over which it went. Each of these legs were bestuck in every
joynt of them with multitudes of small hairs, or (if we respect the
proportion they bore to the bigness of the leg) turnpikes, all pointing
towards the claws.
The _Thorax_, or middle parts of the body of this Creature, was exceeding
small, in respect both of the head and belly, it being nothing but that
part which was covered by the two shells BB, though it seem'd to grow
thicker underneath: And indeed, if we consider the great variety Nature
uses in proportioning the three parts of the body, (the _Head_, _Thorax_,
and _Belly_) we shall not wonder at the small proportion of this _Thorax_,
nor at the vaster bulk of the belly, for could we exactly anatomise this
little Creature, and observe the particular designs of each part, we should
doubtless, as we do in all her more manageable and tractable fabricks, find
much more reason to admire the excellency of her contrivance and
workmanship, then to wonder, it was not made otherwise.
The head of this little Insect was shap'd somewhat like a Mite's, that is,
it had a long snout, in the manner of a Hogs, with a knobbed ridge running
along the middle of it, which was bestuck on either side with many small
brisles, all pointing forward, and two very large pikes or horns, which
rose from the top of the head, just over each eye, and pointed forward
also. It had two pretty large black eyes on either side of the
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