1 14 COCKROACH. 



articles as they have passed over. The largest of 

 the genus is the Blatta gigantea of Linnteus, 

 which is a native of many of the warmer parts 

 of Asia, Africa, and South-America. It is this 

 species in particular which seems to be intended 

 in the following description of the ravages of this 

 genus by an excellent observer who had contem- 

 plated the animals in their native climes. 



" The Cockroaches* are a race of pestiferous 

 beings, equally noisome and mischievous to na- 

 tives or strangers, but particularly to collectors. 

 These nasty and voracious insects fly out in the 

 evenings and commit monstrous depredations: 

 they plunder and erode all kinds of victuals, drest 

 and undrest, and damage all sorts of cloathing, 

 especially those which are touched with powder, 

 pomatum, and similar substances ; every thing 

 made of leather, books, paper, and various other 

 articles, which if they do not destroy, at least 

 they soil, as they frequently deposit a drop of 

 their excrement where they settle, and some way 

 or other by that means damage what they cannot 

 devour. They fly into the flame of candles, and 

 sometimes into the dishes; are very fond of ink 

 and of oil, into which they are apt to fall and 

 perish. In this case they soon turn most offen- 

 sively putrid, so that a man might as well sit over 

 the cadaverous body of a large animal as write 

 with the ink in which they have died. They often 

 fly into persons' faces or bosoms, and their legs 



* See the preface to the thkd volume of Drury's Exotic 

 Insects. 



