BLATTA. JIQH 



feotnmon food ; and of that necefiary of life it Is then ex- 

 tremely voracious. When meal is wanting, as mull hap- 

 pen in the fields, it corrodes the roots of plants. After 

 having attained its full complement of limbs, and ac- 

 quired its moft ptrfedl form, the cockroach difplays a 

 mouth armed with jaws, and furniihed with pilpi. Its 

 antennae are generally as long as the body, and the abdo- 

 men as broad as the thorax. The tarfi of the fore feet 

 have five joints ; thofe 6f the hinder only four; while the 

 horns which terminate the abdomen are furrowed, or 

 wrinkled tranfveifely *. There are ten fpecies of this 

 genus, named, for the moll part, after the different coun- 

 tries which they inhabit. 



* Bnrbut, Order II. Gen. r. 



