HOUSEHOLD INSECTS . 261 



in this country. It is very much larger than the common 

 cockroach, in general colouring it is chestnut, and both males 

 and females are winged. 



Though no actual proof has been put forward to show 

 that the common cockroach is a carrier of disease, there is 

 every reason to believe that before long it will be shown 

 to be so. It is not very many years since the house fly 

 was looked upon as a harmless nuisance, and the cockroach 

 is no less fond of contaminating human food. On its behalf 

 we may add that it is an inveterate enemy of the bed bug. 



TERMITES 



The critically minded may raise some objection to the 

 inclusion of Termites among the household insects; true, 

 they are dwellers in the open, but, at the same time, many 

 species enter houses and prove more destructive than any 

 other insects. Popularly, but erroneously, called "white 

 ants " probably, it has been said, because they are neither 

 white nor ants, these little insects certainly bear some 

 resemblance to ants in their habits. It is in Africa and 

 Australia that the termites are encountered in the greatest 

 numbers, but some species hail from Asia and North and 

 South America. To woodwork of all kinds, furniture, 

 books, wall-paper, clothing, boots, and all leather goods, 

 many termite species are terribly destructive and their 

 mode of attack is particularly insidious. Woodwork, for 

 example, is always eaten away from the inside, so that 

 nothing but a mere shell remains an external skeleton, 

 that will crumble to nothing with the merest touch ; in fact, 

 the sudden collapse of woodwork is often the first intima- 

 tion that " white ants " have been at work. 



Although a considerable literature is devoted to these 

 insects and their habits, there remain many points on 

 which much light must be shed, if we are ever to obtain a 

 clear understanding of their ways. Again, there are so 



