118 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



beneath them the upper side of the abdomen is de- 

 pressed with the sides raised up, a sort of box or 

 chamber is formed inside which the newly born young, 

 can be carried about very comfortably. The maternal 

 instinct is met with so seldom in the insect world, 

 outside the great Hymenopterous order, that it is quite 

 pleasant to be able to record new examples of it. 



It must not be supposed that all Cockroaches are as 

 repulsive in appearance as those mentioned at the 

 beginning of this chapter. The great majority of 

 species are found, not in houses, but in forest and 

 jungle ; some forms burrow in decaying wood or in 

 the ground, others are found in flower-heads, others 

 skulk under stones or dead leaves ; others, wonder- 

 fully mottled and streaked, are found on the trunks 

 of trees, and harmonize admirably with their back- 

 ground. A few species are gorgeously coloured, and 

 some so closely resemble ladybirds and plant-feeding 

 beetles, not only in their colour and markings, but 

 also in their shapes, as to deceive all but an expert 

 entomologist. 



On Mt. Matang, in Sarawak, I discovered some 

 immature Cockroaches lurking beneath the vegetable 

 debris that bestrewed the banks of a stream trickling 

 down the hillside. When disturbed these Cockroaches 

 took to the water and swam and dived with ease. I 

 was so interested in what appeared to be an unknown 

 habit in this family of Orthoptera that I kept some 

 specimens under observation in a glass tank for some 

 weeks. I observed that my captives were unable to 

 endure total immersion for any length of time ; if 

 they were confined in a corked tube quite full of 

 water they were drowned in a few minutes after some 



