CHAPTER V 



COCKROACHES, MANTISES, AND STICK- 

 INSECTS 



THE insects forming the subject of this chapter con- 

 stitute three families of the order Orthoptera : the other 

 families of the order, including the Earwigs, Grass- 

 hoppers, Locusts, and Crickets, I will neglect for the 

 present, since these are familiar insects to all who 

 have paid any attention at all to natural history in 

 England. 



The common Cockroach I or " black beetle " is 

 familiar to all of us, and too familiar to some, for in 

 many houses it swarms in multitudes. It has a dis- 

 gusting smell and a repulsive appearance ; still it has 

 been asserted that it is an enemy of those loathsome 

 parasites the bed-bugs. Its scientific name is Blatta 

 orientalis, and it has been known under that name to 



1 Americans have abbreviated this word as "roach," perhaps 

 by a reversed analogy with "robin," "cockrobin." As "roach" 

 is good Anglo-Saxon for a species of fish the use of the word 

 for an insect is objectionable. "Cockroach" is derived from the 

 Spanish "cucaracha," a word of obscure etymology but possibly 

 derived from some South American Indian word signifying this 

 insect. "Cuco" in Spanish means a sort of caterpillar or bug, 

 and " cucaracha " is possibly connected with this : if so the 

 elision of the first syllable of "cockroach," the syllable which 

 originally gave the word its significance, is doubly objectionable. 



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