BLATTID.E. — BLATTA. 4<3 



eight in the males, and six or seven in the females, and the last sex 

 has the terminal segment sometimes keeled: the eggs of these 

 insects are compound, that is, they are enclosed in an oblong case. 



I believe that it is a native of South America and the West Indies: certain 

 it is that specimens have been found in England, as in Mr. Beck's cabinet 

 are several examples which he found in the West India Docks ; but it is 

 evident from that they have no pretensions to be considered British. In 

 Shaw's General Zoology, it is supposed, by a quotation from MoufFett, that 

 a specimen once occurred in the tower of a church at Peterborough, but the 

 vagueness of the description renders the story improbable. 



Genus XV.— BLATTA, Auctorum. 



Aniennce glabrous, very long, inserted in an excavation near the eyes ; head 

 nutant, nearly concealed beneath the anterior margin of the thorax ; ei/es 

 depressed] thorax rounded in front, slightly waved behind; elj/tra with a 

 shallow curved channel towards the base, the apex sometimes truncate; 

 males with wings, females generally destitute thereof, and in some instances 

 wanting elytra ; bod;y glabrous and shining, of a soft consistence, much 

 depressed above; abdomen in the males furnished at the apex with two 

 articulated processes and two styles ; legs slender, long, especially the 

 posterior ; the hinder Jemora and all the tibics armed with spines, the former 

 below and the latter on the outside ; tarsi with the basal joint as long as all 

 the others united; claws with a more or less evident puvillus, or cushion, 

 between them. 



From the preceding genus these insects may be known by having a cushion 

 between the claws, exclusively of other differences ; and from Ectobius they 

 differ not only by having the basal joints of the tarsus as long as the four 

 remaining joints, the femora more or less spinose beneath, but in being of a 

 much larger size, &c. ; they are most voracious insects, and devour all kind 

 of animal and vegetable substances that they can obtain : they are extremely 

 destructive in kitchens, bakehouses, on board ship, &c. : they are probably 

 the most active of insects, running from the light, which they detest, when 

 suddenly disturbed, with inconceivable velocity; they are, consequently 

 nocturnal insects, and the common species, Bl. orientalis, abounds so in 

 some underground apartments in London, as literally to cover the floor, 

 within a few minutes after the lights are extinguished. 



Sp. 1. Maderae. Fnsca, thorace elytrisque lividisfusco variegatis. (Long. corp. 

 1 unc. 6—10 lin.) 



Bl. Maderce. Fabricius. — Donovan, v. xiii. pi. 457 (!) — Steph. Catal. 304. 

 No. 335 1, note. 



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