282 Insects and their Surroundings 



will be discovered that obtain shelter and food by 

 making themselves the "unbidden guests" of man. 

 Among these the House-Mouse, possibly also the 

 Brown Rat, alone represent the Vertebrates, while 

 one or two kinds of slugs are the only members of 

 the great Molluscan branch. Among Arthropods 

 we may find three or four species of spiders, but 

 when the insects are examined it will be seen that 

 almost each one of the larger orders has several 

 representatives which get their living in various 

 ways. The Cockroach, which we took as our type 

 of insect structure, abounds in the kitchen ; by its 

 power of omnivorous feeding, and its rapid repro- 

 duction, it has, in most town-houses at least, driven 

 out the less unpleasant House-Cricket, which also 

 belongs to the order Orthoptera. A Springtail, a 

 Bristletail, and a Book-louse, find food and lodg- 

 ing among neglected piles of paper, being very 

 possibly associated with one or two small Beetles. 

 Several beetles will be found too burrowing in old 

 woodwork, or devouring skins (fig. 156), and the 

 housewife will be fortunate if her stores of food are 

 entirely free from other insects of the same order. 

 Unless preventive means are freely used three or four 

 kinds of small Moth will be noticed flying about unused 

 rooms, while their caterpillars busily devour cloth and 

 fur. Flies of several distinct families are to be seen 

 inside any window-pane, and, though the larger por- 

 tion of these may have come in from outside, several 

 kinds have been bred within the houses, their 

 maggots having fed in cheese, or in corks, or in 

 refuse matter which, in some neglected corner, has 

 escaped the housemaid's broom. The animal in- 

 habitants of a house, then, confirm the estimate of 

 naturalists that Insects outnumber in their species 

 all the rest of the animal world together. 



