The _Forficulæ_ avoid the light. They are to be found in the chinks of trees, under bark, and under stones. The female watches over the eggs with maternal solicitude, and carries them away elsewhere when they are touched. She also protects the larvæ and pupæ till they are strong enough to dispense with all attention. The _Blattæ_, or Cockroaches, are very destructive insects, as the name, derived from the Greek word [Greek: Blaptein], to damage, implies. They are omnivorous, attacking all sorts of dead substances, vegetable and animal. Horace reproaches them with devouring stuffs, like the moths:-- "Cui stragula vestis, Blattarum ac tinearum epulæ, 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 zinc-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 (_Blatta Germanica_). 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 antennæ 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 Greek comic 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.