388 THE COCKROACH. 



There are about seven or eight European species, some of them being of very small size. 

 I have often seen them flying about at midday, when they might easily be mistaken for 

 beetles. They have several times alighted on the sleeve of my coat, and afforded good oppor- 

 tunities of watching the curious manner in which the wings are tucked under their cases. 

 The largest species is the Giant Earwig. It is of very rare occurrence, and seldom seen, as it 

 only inhabits the sea-shore, and never shows itself until dusk. 



GRASSHOPPERS, LOCUSTS, CRICKETS, ETC., 



ORTHOPTERA. 



A LARGE and important order succeeds the Earwigs, containing some of the finest and, at 

 the same time, the most grotesquely formed members of the insect tribe. In this order we 

 include the grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, cockroaches, and leaf and stick insects ; and its 

 members are known by the thick, parchment-like upper wings, with their stout veinings and 

 their overlapping tips. As in all the orders, there are exceptional species, wherein one or 

 more of these attributes are wanting. But the characters are in themselves constant, and in 

 most cases the indications of the missing member can be found. For example, many species 

 never obtain wings at all, in many others the males only are furnished with these organs, and 

 in others they are so small as to escape a casual notice. 



THE first family of Orthoptera is the Blattidge, a group of insects familiar under the title 

 of Cockroaches. 



In these insects the body is flattened, the antennae are long and thread-like, and the per- 

 fect wings are only to be found in the adult male. The common COCKROACH, so plentiful in 

 our kitchens, and so well known under the erroneous name of black-beetle its color being 

 dirty-red, and its rank not that of a beetle is supposed to have been brought originally from 

 India, and to have found itself in such good quarters that it has overspread the land in all 

 directions. 



The Cockroaches are particularly fond of heat, and are found in greatest abundance in 

 kitchens, bake-houses, and other places where the temperature is always high. They are noc- 

 turnal in their habits, very seldom making their appearance by daylight, but leaving their 

 hiding-places in swarms as soon as darkness brings their day. On board ship they become an 

 almost intolerable nuisance, pouring out of the many hiding-places afforded to them by a 

 ship's timbers as soon as the lights are put out, and drive sleep far away by their pestilent 

 odor and their continual crawling over the face and limbs of those who are vainly endeavoring 

 to seek repose. 



Together with the rats and mice, these insects sometimes increase to such an unbearable 

 extent, that, when the vessel comes to a port, the crew are sent on shore, pots of lighted 

 sulphur are placed in the hold, and the hatches battened down for four-and-twenty hours. 

 This severe treatment kills all the rats and mice and all the existing generation of Cockroaches, 

 and is so far a temporary relief. But the eggs, which are laid in great profusion, retain the 

 elements of life, in spite of the sulphureous fumes ; and in a few months the ship will be 

 nearly as much overrun as before with these pests. 



There are several means of destroying the Cockroaches in houses, and if they are per- 

 severingly carried out, a dwelling may be kept comparatively free from them. The common 

 red wafers, if scattered over the floor, are rapid and effectual poison to these insects, and meal 

 mixed with plaster of Paris has the same effect. Traps, too, can be readily made by twisting 

 a funnel of paper, putting it into the neck of a jar with a little sugar and water at the bottom, 

 and laying slips of wood or pasteboard as ladders by which the Cockroaches can reach the 

 treacherous banquet. Those that enter will never escape with life, and the quickest way of 

 killing them is to pour boiling water into the jar. 



