ORTHOPTERA. 285 
and pup till they are strong enough to dispense with all 
attention. 
The Blatt, or Cockroaches, are very destructive insects, as the 
name, derived from the Greek word BAarrew, to damage, implies. 
They are omnivorous, attacking all sorts of dead substances, 
vegetable and animal. Horace reproaches them with devouring 
stuffs like the moths :— 
* Cui stragula vestis, 
Blattarum ac tinearum epule, 
Putrescit im arca.” 
These disagreeable msects devour our eatables, abounding in 
kitchens, in bakers’ shops, on board merchant vessels, &c. Their 
flattened bodies allow them easily to introduce themselves into the 
cracks of cases or barrels ; so that, to be safe against their attacks, 
it is necessary, on long voyages, to shut up the goods in zinc- 
lined boxes, or cases made of sheet-iron well soldered together. 
Chamisso relates that the sailors having opened some barrels 
which should have contained rice and wheat, found them filled 
with German Cockroaches (Blatta Germanica). This transub- 
stantiation was not very agreeable to the crew! Other naturalists 
have seen this insect invading by millions bottles which had con- 
tained oil. The Cockroach is very fond also of the blacking on 
boots, and devours leather and all. One pupa sometimes eats the 
skin cast off by another pupa, but a Cockroach has never been 
known to attack another, with a view to eating him afterwards. 
These Orthoptera have a flat broad body, the thorax very much 
developed, the antennze very long, and the legs thin but strong, 
which enable them to run with remarkable quickness. Thev 
diffuse around them a sickening odour, which often hangs about 
objects they have touched. Aristophanes, the comic Greek poet, 
mentions this peculiarity in his comedy of ‘The Peace.” They 
come out mostly at night, and hide themselves during the day. 
They are the most cosmopolitan of all insects. Carried over in _ 
ships, they perpetuate everywhere, just like weeds! Persian 
powder, composed of pulverised pyrethra, is an excellent means 
to employ for their destruction. 
_ Most of the species of cockroaches are black or brownish. Two 
