418 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



devour flour, bread, meat, cheese (Lewis, Trans. Ent. Soc. vol i. 

 p, Ixxix.), woollen clothes, and even shoes. {Linn. Amcen. Acad. 

 vol. iii. p. 345.; and Hummell, p. 14.) It does not appear that they 

 devour each other, although Hummell states that the larvae and 

 pupas will eat both exuviae and the interior of the capsules. They 

 also eject a dark-coloured fluid from the mouth, which emits a very 

 disagreeable odour, which it is difficult to get rid of, and which also 

 attaches to whatever they creep over. The ravages of these insects 

 on board ships is so great, that barrels of rice, corn, or other pro- 

 visions are at times completely destroyed by them*; and, in calm 

 weather it is not unusual to employ the boys on board in collecting 

 them at a small trifle per score. Various plans have been suggested 

 for their destruction, but the most serviceable method is to use a 

 small wooden box, having a circular hole at the top fitted with a 

 glass rim, out of which it is impossible for them to escape. It should 

 be nightly baited, and the contents thrown the next morning into 

 scalding water. 



It is, however, in the tropics that the ravages of these creatures are 

 the most extensive, of which Drury has given us an account. They 

 devour all kinds of victuals, dressed and undressed, and damage all sorts 

 of clothing, leather, books, paper, &c., which if they do not destroy, 

 at least they soil, as they frequently deposit a drop of their excrement 

 where they settle. They swarm by myriads in old houses, making 

 every part filthy beyond description. They have also the power of 

 making a noise like a sharp knocking with the knuckle upon the 

 wainscoting; Blatta gigantea being thence known in the West 

 Indies by the name of drummer; and this they keep up, replying to 

 each other, throughout the night ; moreover, they attack sleeping 

 persons, and will even eat the extremities of the dead. (Drury, ///. 

 Exot. Ent. vol. ii. p. 71. 2d ed.) f 



According to M. Doumerc, who had observed the habits of these 

 insects in Brazil, those species which have the abdomen depressed, 

 constituting the genus Phoraspis, are found upon plants in blossom, as 



* Chamisso (^F€r7ia7tdl. Gesellsc/i. Naturforsch. Fr. in Berlin, b. i. st. iii. 1821, 

 p. 174. 



■\ The habits of the West Indian species are recorded in tlie Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 No. 27. ; the Annales Soc. Ent. de France, 1837, p. 506. ; and by Mr. Sells in the 

 Trans. Ent. Soc. London, vol. i. p. xlviii. The annoyances produced by them on 

 board ship are set forth by Mr. Lewis in the same volume, p. Ixxix. -, 



