480 THE COCKROACH. 



tare occurrence, and seldom seen, as it only inhabits the seashore, and never shows itself 

 until dusk. I have a fine specimen that was caught on the sands near Folkestone, in the 

 month of July. 



OETHOPTERA. 



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 Blattidse, a group of insects familiar under the 

 title of Cockroaches. 



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

 perfect wings are only to be found in the adult male. The common COCKEOACPI, so 

 plentiful in our kitchens, and so well known under the erroneous name of black-beetle 

 its colour 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 lias 

 overspread the land in all directions. 



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

 kitchens, bakehouses, and other places where the temperature is always high. They are 

 nocturnal 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 odour and their continual crawling over the face and limbs of those who 

 are vainly endeavouring 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 Cock- 

 roaches, 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. 



A hedgehog is also a good remedy against Cockroaches, and if allowed the run of 

 the kitchen during the night, will be wonderfully efficacious in keeping down their 

 numbers. 



The eggs of the Cockroach are not laid separately, but enclosed in a hard memoranous 

 case, exactly resembling an apple puff, and containing about sixteen eggs. Plenty of 



