EEE 
ORTHOPTERA. 285 
and pupee till they are strong enough to dispense with all atten- 
tion. 
The Blatte, or Cockroaches, are very destructive insects, as the 
name, derived from the Greek word Pdaztew, to damage, implies. 
They are omnivorous, attacking all sorts of dead substances, vege- 
table and animal. Horace reproaches them with devouring stutis 
like the moths :— 
“Cui stragula vestis, 
Blattarum ac tinearum epule, 
Putrescit in arca.” 
These disagreeable insects 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 
zine-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. This transubstantiation was not very 
agreeable to the crew! Other naturalists have seen this insect 
invading by millions bottles which had contained 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 antennz very long, and the legs thin but strong, 
which enable them to run with remarkable quickness. They 
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 

