THE YOUXG NATURALIST. 



69 



;u" equently. But one thing more can be briefly 

 re! red to to-da}-, — the means by which the sexes 

 jfi.rious insects find each other. The Brimstone 

 Bierfly (G.rhamni) does not pair till after 

 i|:rnation, and in autumn the sexes take no 

 ni: heed of each other than if they were different 

 riies. In spring it is quite different. In some 

 Jies the female has an attractive power for the 

 Mt, the cause of whick is quite unknown. The 

 J of the Emperor Moth (.9. rarpivi) will come 

 J mile=; to a newly emerged female, but after 

 has once had contact with the male no more 

 come : we have no idea at all of the means of 

 munication. The light of the Glow-worm is 

 ved to be a sexual attraction, as is the chirp 

 tridulation of the Grasshopper, the Cicada, 

 others. In some, as the Ephemeridce, the 

 t life is of very short duration, a single day 

 ing for emergence from the pupae, for pairing 

 the deposit of ova. Some of these pair iv. 

 nr. 



e must now leave the subject. Our introduc- 

 has perhaps been thought long, but the subiect 

 eat, and we have merely skimmed the smallest 

 on of the surface. 



Fig. 



-Male Cockroach. 



I APPRECIATED INSECTS. 



stract of a lecture by the Rev. T. G. Wood, 

 , F.L.S., delivered in the Highfield Assem- 

 ^oom, Huddersfield, Nov. 25th, 1879. 

 rearing upon the subject of unappreciated 

 ts, it is intended simply to introduce a few of 

 to you, not to explain them fully, but to draw 

 0 attention to them, and show that they have 

 oieen appreciated. First the cockroach. Very 

 taeople appreciate this insect, but some few do. 

 J"e was once a voung lady, and when very 

 S'g her nurse noticed that in taking her up to 

 tone night she had her fist firmly clenched, and 

 jh asked what she had got in it, she said she 

 a jot a dear little cockroach, and was going to 

 d it to bed with her. Again, two young ladies 

 pTi I knew, and who came over from abroad, 

 K remarkably fond of cockroaches, so fond in- 

 e that they would eat them, and when sent to 

 3ol in England, their mistress was told of this 

 E liar propensity, and she did all she could to 

 r<k it off ; she told them they were not to eat 



them, and unfortunately she told them why. They 

 were nasty things, she said, upon which the ladies 

 replied that she ate shrimps, and shrimps fed upon 

 worms and dead sailors, whereas cockroaches fed 

 upon crumbs of bread. If a cockroach is seen to 

 cross a room all the ladies immediately jump on 

 chairs screaming. Let us ask the reason of this. 

 The first reason a lady would give, is that the 

 cockroach has legs. Well it has only got four 

 more than she has, and I am sure the cockroach has 

 greater cause of fear from her two, than she has 

 from its six. The second reason is that they 

 have a nasty smell, but there are animals which 

 can smell us at a very great distance and try to get 

 out of our way, and probably they think that we 

 smell nasty. The third reason is that it is a 

 " Black Beetle." Now, it is not black, r,»nd it is 

 not a beetle. The cockroach belongs to the same 

 order of insects as the grasshopper and cricket. 

 If you will take the trouble to examine the back 

 of the cockroach you will find it to be of a beautiful 

 shining coppery brown. This insect is not a 

 British one, but it is here, and will probably re- 

 main as long as civilization remains in its present 

 condition. How it came no one knows. Some 

 people say they don't like it because it is so vora- 

 cious, but that is just the reason why it is here ; 

 it finds a comfortable home and plenty to eat and 

 drink. They will eat almost anything. I have d is* 

 sected hundreds, and found all kinds of things in 

 them. A surgeon on board ship once published 

 some valuable information about the cockroach, 

 of which I have got some notes. He said that 

 they would eat almost anything in the ship ; books, 

 cloth, corks, lucifer matches, wine, or when this 

 failed they would substitute ink ; they had a pecu- 



