27 



elusive residence, and attacking man's stores. But even these 

 limit themselves in vegetable diet to ripe or prepared fruits, or 

 other vegetable food substances suitably altered by cooking or 

 decay, and I have not met with a single case of living plants 

 having been attacked by them. The greater proportion of 

 species is therefore beneficial to man and Nature generally, not- 

 withstanding their repulsive exterior. 



As far as known hitherto the Blattaria? choose as hiding- 

 places during periods of inactivity any dark, secluded spaces, 

 under logs of wood, stones, bark, vegetable debris, or anything 

 offering shelter and protection, and without constructing them- 

 selves any burrows or individual homes. The individuals of the 

 genera Epilampra and Oniscosoma, especially the females, how- 

 ever, are known to bury themselves in loose soil or dust, and 

 their fore ti1)ia3 accordingly exhibit a somewhat modified struc- 

 ture, enabling them to displace the loose particles, being incras- 

 sated, and the spines long and stout, though still unmistakably 

 on the normal type. None appear to have been known of truly 

 burrowing habits, like the crickets, until the discovery of a large 

 wingless species near Broken Hill, and subsequently at Renmark, 

 the fore tibiae of which are suificiently modified to enable it f o 

 burrow in ordinary soil, e.g., red clay. Differing in this direction 

 so much, and correspondingly in other details, I have formed a 

 new family — Geoscapheusida? — for this singular species. 



Owing to their voracity and cannibalistic tendencies, the car- 

 nivorous species lead more or less solitary lives, and one meets 

 rarely several together in close proximity ; they are not at any 

 time very numerous, on account of thf^. stronger devouring the 

 weaker in lack of other prey, and thus their number is strictly 

 limited by the food supply. It is only such that have developed 

 tastes for amylaceous fare in preference to animal diet which 

 trouble man by invading his habitations in large numbers, and 

 living gregariously and peacefully together, as long as absolute 

 want of food does not force them to extremes, when they do not 

 hesitate to eat each other, nor will they leave the l)ody of a dead 

 comrade undevoured if discovered before quite dry. On the 

 whole cockroaches belong to Nature's best scavengers in wood, 

 field, and garden. 



Distribution. — Some of the omnivorous kinds are almost cos- 

 mopolitan, being only restricted by the extreme limits of tem- 

 perature bearable for them. Many species are, however, limited 

 to more or less restricted areas, and disappear with the flora of 

 the regions they inhabit, notably those that are destitute of the 

 power of flight in one or both sexes. Being very shy, swift of 

 motion, and usually endowed with repulsive smell, their habits 

 are difficult to study, and therefore little is known of the vast 



