books in libraries and publishing houses. The sizing or paste used 

 on the cloth covers and in the binding of books is to them very 

 attractive. The surface of the covers of cloth-bound books is often 

 much scraped and disfigured, particularly b}^ the German cockroach 

 {Ectobia germanica), and the gold lettering is sometimes eaten off 

 to get at the albumen paste. On shipboard the damage is often 

 very extensive, on account of the vast numbers of cockroaches 

 which frequently occur there, and we have reliable accounts of 

 entire supplies of ship biscuits having been eaten up or ruined by 

 roaches. 



The damage they do is not only in the products actually consumed, 

 but in the soiling and rendering nauseous of everything with which 

 they come in contact. The}- leave, wherever they occur in any num- 

 bers, a fetid, nauseous odor, well known as the " roachy " odor, which 

 is persistent and can not be removed from shelves and dishes with- 

 out washing with soap and boiling water. Food supplies so tainted 

 are beyond redemption. This odor comes partly from the excre- 

 ment, but chiefly from a dark-colored fluid exuded from the mouth 

 of the insect, with which it stains its runways; and also in part, 

 doubtless, from the scent glands, which occur on the bodies of both 

 sexes be ween certain segments of the abdomen, and which secrete 

 an oily liquid possessing a very characteristic and disagreeable odor. 

 It frequently happens that shelves on which dishes are placed become 

 impregnated with this roachy odor, and this is imparted to and 

 retained by dishes to such an extent that every thing served in them, 

 particularly liquids, as coffee or tea, will be noticed to have a pecu- 

 liar, disgusting, foreign taste and odor, the source of which ma}' be 

 a puzzle, and will naturally be supposed to come from the food 

 rather than from the dish. 



The roaches are normally scavengers in habit and may at times 

 be of actual service in this direction by eating up and removing any 

 dead animal material. 



One other redeeming trait has been recorded of them, namelj-, 

 that they will prey upon that other grievous pest of houses which 

 are not subjected to careful supervision, the bedbug. Their habits 

 in this direction have been recorded several times. One writer, in a 

 narrative of a voyage (Foster's Yoj'age, Vol. I, p. 373), makes the 

 following statement in this connection : 



Cockroaches, those nuisances to ships, are plentiful at St. Helena, and yet, bad 

 as they are, they are more endurable than bugs. Previous to our arrival here in 

 the Chanticleer, we had suffered great inconvenience froni the latter, but the 

 cockroaches no sooner made their appearance than the bugs entirely disappeared. 

 The fact is that the cockroach preys ui)on them and leaves no sign or vestige of 

 where they have been. So that it is a most valuable insect.^ 



1 Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1865, N. S. 3, p. 77. 



