48 ORTHOPTERA. 



and the insect's anterior pair of legs are converted into 

 flat digging organs, having an outward direction similar 

 to the hand of the mole. Where the mole-cricket 

 [Gryllotalpa vulgaris) abounds, it causes much damage 

 to the crops, but it is very local in its distribution. I 

 have never seen or heard of one in Shropshire. 



A short notice of the Cockroach and Earwig will con- 

 clude my sketch of the Orthoptera. 



The Cockroach, one of the cursorial Orthoptera, is the 

 so-called black-beetle of our houses — the well-known 

 pest of our kitchens and pantries. Nocturnal in their 

 liabits, omnivorous as to diet, black as to colour and 

 character, of a most unpleasant odour, which they com- 

 municate to objects which they have touched, cock- 

 roaches are universally regarded with aversion and dis- 

 gust. The specific Latin name of Blatta Orlentalis was 

 given to this insect to indicate its original home, sup- 

 posed by some to be India. In Gilbert White's time 

 cockroaches do not appear to have been so common and 

 well known as they are now, for he regards this insect as 

 a new introduction into Selborne in 1790. He writes 

 — " A neighbour comjDlained to me that her house was 

 overrun with a kind of black-beetle, or, as she expressed 

 herself, with a kind of black-bob, which swarmed in her 

 kitchen when they got up in the morning before day- 

 break. Soon after this account, I observed an unusual 

 insect in one of my dark chimney-closets, and find since 

 that in the night time they swarm also in my kitchen. 

 On examination I soon ascertained the species to be the 

 blatta orientalis of Linnseus." 



These insects have a remarkable mode of oviposition 

 for the eggs are not discharged separately, but are col- 



