222 SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. 



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spotted and rather more gaily adorned, being, as Stoll 

 affirms, no way contemptible in regard to colouring. 

 They are nocturnal insects, and it was probably one 

 of the species which, on that account, the ancients 

 designated lucifuga. They are exceedingly voracio 

 scarcely any kind of edible substance coming amiss 

 them, and even attacking others which can scarcely 

 said to come under that designation ; of the latter des- 

 cription are leather, silks, and woollen stuffs, which 

 they gnaw with their well armed mandibles, and greatly 

 injure. Their omnivorous and destructive propensities 

 are well known in this country, from the prevalence 

 of one of the species, (J5. orientalist originally sup- 

 posed to have been brought from the east, arid now 

 completely naturalised. It frequents cellars, bake- 

 houses, kitchens, c. is somewhat less than an inch 

 in length, and of a dark reddish brown colour, 

 wings are shorter than the abdomen in the male, 

 merely rudimentary in the female, which, on this 

 count, very much resembles the larva, when thei 

 organs are wanting in both sexes. It lays sixteen 

 eggs, which are enclosed in a kind of bag of an oval 

 shape, at first white but afterwards becoming brown. 

 This is borne for a time at the extremity of the anus, 

 and then deposited in some warm place, and seen 

 to the spot by some adhesive gummy matter. 



Besides the common species about a dozen others 

 occur in Britain, but one-third of these have no claim 

 to be considered indigenous, having been accidentally 

 introduced along with foreign commodities. One of 

 these exotic kinds, however, seems to have obtained 



