■^. Fauna: Invertebrates 



emit a rather sickly smell, like oil of almonds or " cherry 

 blossom " scent. 



It is possible that the remarkable Peripatus, that creature 

 which, if one may dare to say so, is a kind of transitional form 

 between the worms, insects, and centipedes, may some day be 

 discovered in the Liberian forests. It is found in South Africa, 

 in parts of South America and the West Indies, in New Zealand 

 and Eastern Australia. So tar, however, its existence has not 

 been established in the more tropical regions of Africa. 



Amongst Insects, it is probable that those first attracting 

 the attention of the foreigner in Liberia will be the large and 

 disagreeable cockroaches {Periplaneta amerkana)^ which abound 

 in most of the Americo-Liberian settlements. These disgusting 

 insects are obviously harboured and bred in the heaps of refuse 

 which accumulate in too many of the Liberian back-yards or 

 compounds. They also find a congenial home in the masses 

 of decaying leaves on the outskirts of the forest. There are 

 indigenous species of Blatticie (inoffensive and prettily coloured), 

 but the cockroaches referred to are in all probability introduced 

 by man from Tropical America through the ships that have 

 passed to aiid fro between the two continents. These large 

 cockroaches in the months of November, December, and January, 

 and possibly also at the beginning of the rains in May, take 

 short flights at night-time, especially in the direction ot any 

 light. With horrible fearlessness they land on a human being 

 as voluntarily as on any other substance, and course wildly over 

 one's face and hancis or get entangled in one's hair. They are 

 sometimes quite two inches in length. In some of the Liberian 

 houses, which in all respects are furnished and appointed with 

 comtort and even a certain elegance, the pleasure of the evening's 



847 



