534 THE COCKROACH. 
The largest British species is that which is given here. It is of very rare 
occurrence, and seldom seen, as it only inhabits the seashore, and never 
shows itself until dusk. I have a fine specimen that was caught on the 
sands near Folkestone, in the month of July. 
ORTHOPTERA. 
A LARGE and important order succeeds the Earwigs, containing some of 
the finest, and at the same time the most grotesquely formed members of 
the insect tribe. In this order we include the grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, 
cockroaches, and leaf and stick insects ; and its members are known by the 
thick parchment-like upper wings, with their stout veinings and their over- 
lapping tips. 
THE first family of Orthopteree is the Blattidee, a group of insects familiar 
under the title of Cockroaches. 
In these insects the body is flattened, the antennz are long and thread- 
like, and the perfect wings are only to be found in the adult male. The 
Common COCKROACH, so plentiful in our kitchens, and so well known under 
Male. Female. 
COCKROACH.—(Blatta orientalis.) 
the erroneous name of black beetle—its colour being dirty red, and its rank 
not that of a beeile—is supposed to have been brought originally from India. 
The egys of the Cockroach are not laid separately, but inclosed in a hard 
membranous case, exactly resembling an apple puff, and containing about 
sixteen eggs. Plenty of these cases may be found under planks or behind 
the skirting boards where these insects love to conceal themselves. Along 
one of the edges of the capsule there is a slit which corresponds with the 
opening of the puff, and which is strengthened like that part of the pastry 
by a tnickened margin. The edges of the slit are toothed, and it is said that 
each tooth corresponds with an egg. When the young are hatched, they 
pour out a fluid which has the effect of dissolving the cement which holds 
the edges together, the newly-hatched Cockroaches push themselves through 
the aperture. which opens like a valve, and closes again after their exit, so 
that the em>ty capsule appears to be perfectly entire. 
A GOOD example of the Cricket is found in the FIELD CRICKET, a noisy 
creature, inhabiting the sides of hedges and old walls, and making country 
‘lanes vocal with its curious cry, if such a word can be applied to a sound 
produc d by friction. The Field Cricket lives in burrows, made at the foot 
of hedges or walls, and sits at their mouth to sing, It is, howeyer a very 
