spotted and rather more gaily adorned, being, as Stoll affirms, no way contemptible in regard to colouring. They are nocturnal insects, and it was probably one of the species which, on that account, the ancients designated lucifuga. They are exceedingly voracious, scarcely any kind of edible substance coming amiss to them, and even attacking others which can scarcely be said to come under that designation; of the latter description are leather, silks, and woollen stuffs, which they gnaw with their well armed mandibles, and greatly injure. Their omnivorous and destructive propensities are well known in this country, from the prevalence of one of the species, (B. orientalis,) originally supposed to have been brought from the east, and now completely naturalised. It frequents cellars, bake-houses, kitchens, &c. is somewhat less than an inch in length, and of a dark reddish brown colour. The wings are shorter than the abdomen in the male, and merely rudimentary in the female, which, on this account, very much resembles the larva, when these organs are wanting in both sexes. It lays sixteen eggs, which are enclosed in a kind of bag of an oval shape, at first white but afterwards becoming brown. This is borne for a time at the extremity of the anus, and then deposited in some warm place, and secured to the spot by some adhesive gummy matter.
Besides the common species about a dozen others occur in Britain, but one-third of these have no claim to be considered indigenous, having been accidentally introduced along with foreign commodities. One of these exotic kinds, however, seems to have obtained
