INSECTS AND VERMES. 345 



Blattce molendinarice of all sizes, from the most minute 

 growth to their full proportions. They seem to live in 

 a friendly manner together, and not to prey the one on the 

 other. 



August, 1792. After the destruction of many thousands 

 of Blattce molendinarice , we find that at intervals a fresh de- 

 tachment of old ones arrives; and particularly during this 

 hot season : for the windows being left open in the evenings, 

 the males come flying in at the casements from the neigh- 

 bouring houses, which swarm with them. How the females, 

 that seem to have no perfect wings that they can use, can 

 contrive to get from house to house, does not so readily 

 appear. These, like many insects, when they find their 

 present abodes overstocked, have powers of migrating to 

 fresh quarters. Since the Blattce have been so much kept 

 under, the crickets have greatly increased in number. 



GRYLLUS DOMESTICUS HOUSE CRICKET. 



NOVEMBER. After the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen 

 hearth swarms with minute crickets not so large as fleas, 

 which must have been lately hatched. So that these 

 domestic insects, cherished by the influence of a constant 

 large fire, regard not the season of their year, but produce 

 their young at a time when their congeners are either dead, 

 or laid up for the winter, to pass away the uncomfortable 

 months in the profoundest slumbers, and a state of torpidity. 

 When house crickets are out, and running about in a room 

 in the night, if surprised by a candle, they give two or three 

 shrill notes, as it were for a signal to their fellows, that they 

 may escape to their crannies and lurking holes, to avoid 

 danger. 



CIMEX LINEARIS. 



AUGUST 12, 1775. Cimiccs linearcs 1 are now eagerly pair- 

 ing on ponds and pools. The females, who vastly exceed 

 the males in bulk, dart and shoot along on the surface of 

 the water with the males on their backs. When a female 

 chooses to be disengaged, she rears, and jumps, and plunges, 



1 Ranalra lincaris, FABR. 



