PLATE XXXI. FIG. 3.
A small Creature hatched on a Vine
DURING most part of the Spring and Summer, a small, round, white, Cobweb-
like Substance, about the Bigness of a Pea, may be found sticking, very close and
fast, to the Stocks of Vines nailed against a warm Wall.
When examined attentively, it seems covered, on the upper Side, with a small Husk,
not unlike the Scale or Shell of the Wood-Louse, Millepes, or Sow, (for by all these
Names is the Insect called which is often found in rotten Wood, and on being touched
rolls itself up into the Size and Shape of a Pepper-Corn.) Several of these being separated
from the Vine-Stock, the Doctor found them, by his Microscope, to consist of a Shell,
which seemed likely to be the Husk of a Millipes, and the Fur or Cobweb consisted of
Abundance of small Filaments. He often discovered in the Middle of all great Numbers
of small brown Eggs, such as A and B represent. They were about the Bigness of the Eggs
of Mites, and were usually hatched about the End of June or Beginning of July, produc-
ing Multitudes of small Insects exactly shaped like that marked x.
The Head of this Creature was very large, being almost half the Bigness of its Body,
as is usual in the F?tus of most Animals. It had two small black Eyes a a, and two
long, slender, jointed and bristled Horns b b. The hinder Part of its Body seemed to con-
sist of nine Scales, and the last ended in a forky Tail, much like that of a Wood-Louse,
out of which issued two long Hairs.
They ran to and fro very briskly ; most were about the Size of a common Mite, but
others less : The longest of them, however, seemed not the hundredth Part of an Inch,
and the Eggs usually not above half as much. They appeared to have six Legs, though
none are shewn in the Picture, the Legs being commonly drawn under the Body, and al-
most hid thereby.
Our Author observes, that if these little Creatures are Wood-Lice, (as he is inclined to
think, from their Shape, Frame, and the Skin or Shell upon them) they afford an In-
stance of a surprising and more than ordinary Increase in Bigness, from their presen: Mi-
nuteness when newly hatched, to the Size they attain when fully grown. For a common
Wood Louse of half an Inch long, is no less than an hundred and twenty five thousand
times bigger than one of these.—Some Sorts of Spiders have also nearly the same Propor-
tion to their young ones when newly hatched.
What the Husk and Cobweb of this little white Substance should be, our Author can-
not imagine, unless the old one, when impregnated with Eggs, should six itself on the
Vine and die there, after which its Body rotting away by degrees, nothing appears re-
maining but the Husk and Eggs only.
