ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 371 



other furniture that happens to obstruct their pas- 

 sage. 



They seem to be most inclined to breed in beech ; 

 hence beech will not make lasting- utensils or furni- 

 ture. If their eggs are deposited on the surface, 

 frequent rubbing will preserve wooden furniture. 



WHITE. 



BLATTA ORIENTALIS, (COCKROACH.) A neigh- 

 bour complained to me that her house was overrun 

 with a kind of black beetle, or, as she expressed her- 

 self, with a kind of black-bob, which swarmed in her 

 kitchen when they got up in the morning before 

 daybreak. 



Soon after this account, I observed an unusual 

 insect in one of my dark chimney closets, and find 

 since, that in the night they swarm also in my 

 kitchen. On examination, I soon ascertained the 

 species to be the blatta orientalis of Linnaeus, and the 

 blatta molendinaria of Mouffet. The male is winged ; 

 the female is not, but shows somewhat like the rudi- 

 ments of wings, as if in the pupa state. 



These insects belonged originally to the warmer 

 parts of America, and were conveyed from thence 

 by shipping to the East Indies ; and, by means of 

 commerce, begin to prevail in the more northern 

 parts of Europe, as Russia, Sweden, &c. How long 

 they have abounded in England I cannot say; but 

 have never observed them in my house till lately. 



They love warmth, and haunt chimney closets, and 

 the backs of ovens. Poda says, that these and 

 house -crickets will not associate together ; but he is 

 mistaken in that assertion, as Linnaeus suspected he 

 was. They are altogether night insects, lucifuga, 

 never coming forth till the rooms are dark and still, 

 and escaping away nimbly at the approach of a 

 B b 2 



