The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-03-15 00:00:00

UNAPPRECIATED IN SECTS.

The R9v. I. G. Wood, the svaltknown nsturslist, on
Thursday evening last, gave a lecture at the Royal Hotel,
on the above subject, in connection wiTh the Lecture and
Entertainment Society. .

ctemle/loirbere,cttbseofaut.htheoLoel
Homes withouc fiends,"
shore and Country," aud was sure the lecture would be
appreciated by that large and influential audience.
The I,gr-rugza said if he were to c vrer out the entire
scheme expressed in the words "Unappreciated !Mae,"
he was afraid their pittance would be exhausted,' bemuse
he did not think any one insect is re illy appreciated, so
that for his lecture he would have hut to t ske the entire
scope of entomology. hpereciation depends upon the
amount of knowledge ; • child sees • bee on a flower, seizes
it, ant the bee stings him, the chil I stses not appreciate
the bee. (A laugh.) Rut a few years lister on, when he
finds it produces the honey he likes, then be learns to
appreciate the bee We appreciate tee silkworm, because
we know it produces a tal.re which is formed into beauti-
ful dreams ; but the savage does not sporeciato the silk-
worm, bemuse he only knows it eats the leaves of the
mulberry tree, the fruit of which he wants. Again, when
the South African farmer sees the locust cloud approach,
his heart sinks within him, because he knows if they
settle there his pope will be destroyed, but the wandering
savage appreciates the locust, because they supply him
with that great luxury of saysgs We, plenty of food and
nothing to el) for it. He should taks as his subject some
insects which are well known. The clothes meth is
erroneously considered an injurious insect to mankind,
and when he stated that insects are sent into the world to
sat, in order to prepare the earth for beings higher than
themselves' two young ladies challenged him to tell the
use of the clothes moth. They had lied cloth jackets put
away in the summer, and whet& liken out in the winter
the jackets were q atm ruined. Whatever could be the
use of the clothes. moth When he went into Lancashire
again he answered the question. The moths were not put
into the world for the purpose of eating young ladies' cloth
jackets, for we find them in countries where people do not
wear anything at all, and these moths are found to have
existed in geological Ws before man. But hair is
imperishable by the ordinary agencies of nature. Every
sheep sheds wool every year. and what becomes of the
wool! Remember the clothes moth never touches any-
thing that is in use; it did not touch the cloth jackets
when on the backs of the wearers, anl it did not know
when they were put away it wee to be taken out again in
the winter, and it never touches the wool when on the
back of the sheep. But when the sheep has done with it
It is not wasted, for birds build their nests with
it. Next year they build fresh nests, not using
old wool, and if this went on, the trees would be filled
with nests, and would die, unless aom.thing removed the
wooL Now comes the beneficent clothes moth, it lays its
eggs in the wool, and they clear the trees of the superb'.
Cumblint weight. (Hear.) The rev, lecturer then pro-
ceeded to his "most exedlent and respected friend, the
cockroach, commonly called the black beetle' He is nA
appreciated, first, he is not black, secondly, he is not
beetle. His colour is a rich deep brown, the fashionable
colour for cockroach brown is now taking the place of sage
grime- (Laughter.) What is there about it which if it
crawls across the drawinzroom carpet forces every lady
to jump on a chair and scream? Why are ladies afraid of
cockroaches? The first answer is the unanswerable one—
" Beceose I am,' (laughter)—the second—" because it has
Imp ;" but why should the lady object to the cockroach's
lege any more than he does to her feet! Another reason—
Because it has such a nasty smell. But if the ccekroach
does think he has • very nasty smell, supposes he turned
round and sold she had • very nasty sinelL No creature
supposes itself has such • smell, and what would anyone
think if she were told she had • smell that she could be
smelt the length of this room? But let any of us go out
on • Scotch moor, and there is not • stag but can smell
us at a mile distance, and as he gets away as fast as be
can, the stag thinks ours is a very nasty smelL We think
cockroaches are of very different sizes, but neither the
smallest nor the largest are cockroaches, but their tarns,
and the perfect insects are of two forms, the male and the
female, and carry out the universal law of zoology that
the male is twice as handsome as the female, his legs are
very slender and lone, furnished with claw., and very
hairy—fA Listener: When I was in the Barbados', they
used to fly and hit me in the eye.) The lecturer went on
to sketch the forms of the insects on the blackboard. Point-
ing out the male bee wins cases, marked with • pattern
of alternate ridge and furrow, the female only slight
indications of wing cases and she is shorter and 'tooter
than the male, her antenum, or feeling horns, shorter, and
her Imp "hosier and more clumsy. The male has wings
and flies heavily and slowly, and though it can go over ttoe
tops of the highest houses, it never goes higher than it
needs, it will top • house or • low well by only about a
foot, The wings are bealtifully intersected by nervoures,
and slightly iridescent in one part; the insect is able to
fold up or spread out the wing as it require". How do
they get into houses? The male can fly
in;
but not the
female, and in nine cases out of ten the laundress's basket
Is the thoese of conveyanc!. The basket Is put on the
floor at night, and when the blinds are drawn up In the
morning. the cockroaches, who hate light, scuttle to the
neared hiding-places, and remain in the baskets when
moved, till they seceme in the next house. How to get
rid of the cockroaches I It is not so earl at it might seem;
grit, because you cannot
get it the eggs—they are
deposited inside • sort of omy purse, divided into
sections, in each of which there is an eve and the.. the
bisects carry out with them, and deposit in all arts of odd
places, behind cupboards or boilers, among the grass in the
garden, or in drawing-room curtains at some height from
the ground, Then If. cockroach is an intellectual being,
of strong reasoning power, you never know what •
sensible thing it Is until you have it tame, which is wily
done, then it will stand up high on its legs, and is as
Inquisitive II • oat. Prying all over anything it has not
seen before, and sweeping it with its long anterior. To
destroy them people buy beetle powder, matter it about,
and find some lying on their backs, and next morning not
so many, for they have learnt not to eat beetle powder.
Then phosphor puce will kill some, and traps catch
others, bet the insects have learnt not to eat the paste, and
also whet papa are. Had any of them looked • cockroach
In the face I The lecturer, who had elaborately and skill
telly sketched tbe seals stud (eseekh how sketched the