ORTHOPTERA. 223 



jl pretty secure footing in this country, particularly 

 msea-port towns. This is B. Americana, or kakerlac, 

 I . pretty large species with very long antennae, and a 

 | rellowish thorax having a brown border and two spots 

 I f the same colour on the disk. All the truly indi- 

 l-enous Blattae are comparatively of small size and 

 k| eldom or never occur in such profusion as to occasion 

 Iiuch injury or annoyance. Even the depredations 

 I f the common B. orientalis are insignificant compared 

 Ivith those of foreign lands, where species of more 

 jprmidable dimensions are sometimes so abundant and 

 I bnoxious as to produce no trifling inconvenience to 

 j he inhabitants. 



" The cockroaches/' says Drury in his work on 

 I xotic insects, "are another race of pestiferous beings, 

 Iqually noisome and mischievous to natives or stran- 

 gers, but particularly to collectors. These nasty and 

 I'oracious insects fly out in the evenings, and commit 

 laonstrous depredations ; they plunder and erode all 

 rinds of victuals, dressed and undressed, and damage 

 111 sorts of clothing, especially those which are touched 

 Ivith powder, pomatum, and similar substances, every 

 Ihing made of leather, books, paper, and various other 

 Jxticles, which, if they do not destroy, at least they soil, 

 HiS they frequently deposit a drop of their excrement 

 Hvhere they settle, and, some way or other, by that 

 I aeans damage what they cannot devour. They fly into 

 I he flame of candles, and sometimes into the dishes; are 

 l r ery fond of ink and of oil, into which they are apt to 

 I all and perish. In this case they soon become most 

 [Offensively putrid, so that a man might as well sit over 



