THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



61 



long IAmax with the fingers, I should be very sorry if it were necessary to 

 capture spiders, the stronger kinds especially, by that means. 



The best modes of collecting and preserving spiders, are those recommened 

 by Mr. Cambridge. The fact that an extract from the introduction to the 

 "Spiders of Dorset" has been reprinted at pp. 38 — 41, Yol. VII of this 

 Magazine, renders it unnecessary for me to make any remarks here under 

 this head. 



Louth, Lincolnshire. 



OBNOXIOUS AND INJURIOUS INSECTS. 



By JOSEPH CHAPPELL. 



In the following paper I propose to give a brief account of those insects 

 that are obnoxious or injurious to our household property, or to articles of 

 commerce, those which inhabit our dwellings, and the various buildings, 

 and vessels which are used in the pursuit of trade and commerce, as well as 

 those feeding on wood and bark. 



I begin with the Cockroaches, which most people erroneously call black 

 beetles. They are perfectly distinct from the order Coleoptera or Beetles. 

 The cockroaches are distinguished from beetles by the different character of 

 their metamorphosis, by the structure of the wings, and other peculiarities. 

 The head is vertical, and jaws transverse. The mouth consists of a labrum, 

 two mandibles, two maxillae, and four palpi. The body is ovate and de- 

 pressed. Their fore-wings (or tegmina) are coriaceous, or resembling leather, 

 veined, when at rest the inner margin of one wing folding over the inner 

 margin of the other, and the portion covered is less deeply coloured than the 

 rest of the wing. The hind- wings are folded longitudinally, except the 

 anterior third which lies flat. The prothorax is large and shield-shaped, 

 often completely concealing the head. The antennae are very long, setaceous 

 or resembling a bristle, and have from fifty to one hundred and fifty joints; 

 The mandibles are short, strong, and horny, toothed at the tip and on the 

 inner surface. The legs are long and compressed, well formed for running. 

 The abdomen is furnished at the tip with two short, conical, compressed, 

 articulated appendages, which exist in both sexes, besides which there is also 

 in the males a pair of slender inarticulated appendages. These insects belong 

 to the family Blattid^e and to the order Orthoptera. They are very 

 numerous both in species and individuals, but are principally inhabitants of 

 the tropics. About eleven species are on the British list, but very little is 



