OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. S89 
winged in July ; eating their way through the valances or curtains of a 
bed, or any other furniture that happens to obstruct thei passage. 
They seem to be most inclined to breed in beech : hence beech will 
not make lasting utensils, or furniture. If their eggs are deposited on 
the surface, frequent rubbing will preserve wooden furniture. — White. 
BLATTA ORIENTALIS. COCKROACH. 
A neighbour complained that her house was over-run with a kind of 
black beetle, or as she expressed herself, with a kind of black-bob, which 
swarmed in her kitchen when they got up in a morning before 
day-break. 
Soon after this account, I observed an unusual insect in one of my 
dark chimney closets, and find since, that in the night they swarm 
also in my kitchen. On examination I soon ascertained the species to 
be the blatta orientalis of Linnaeus, and the hlatta molendinaria of 
Mouffet. The male is winged ; the female is not, but shows somewhat 
like the rudiments of wings, as if in the pupa state. 
These insects belonged originally to the warmer parts of America, 
and were conveyed from thence by shipping to the East Indies ; and 
by means of commerce begin to prevail in the more northern parts of 
Europe, as Russia, Sweden, &c. How long they have abounded in 
England I cannot say ; but have never observed them in my house 
till lately. 
They love warmth, and haunt chimney closets and the backs of 
ovens. Poda says that these and house crickets will not associate 
together ; but he is mistaken in that assertion, as Linnaeus suspected 
he was. They are altogether night insects, lucifugWy never coming 
forth till the rooms are dark and still, and escaping away nimbly at the 
approach of a candle. Their antennae are remarkably long, slender, 
and flexile. 
October 1790. After the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen 
hearth swarms with young crickets, and young hlattce mokndinarice of 
all sizes, from the most minute growth to their full proportions. They 
seem to live in a friendly manner together, and not to prey the one on 
the other. 
August 1792. After the destruction of many thousands of hlattce 
molendinarice, we find that at intervals a fresh detachment of old ones 
arrives, and particularly during this hot season ; for the windows being 
left open in the evenings, the males come flying in at the casements 
from the neighbouring houses, which swarm with them. How the 
females, that seem to have no perfect wings that they can use, can 
contrive to get from house to house, does not so readily appear. These, 
like many insects, when they find their present abodes overstocked, 
have powers of migrating to fresh quarters. Since the hlattce, have 
been so much kept under, the crickets have greatly increased in 
number. — White. 
IT 
