The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-04-06
OLDEST OF. INSECTS.
THE HUMBLE rcocksoAcH KING or
ALL MS KIND.

ALL MS KIND.
His Noble lane Traced BACK Through NH
lions Of Years by the Fossils In Rocks Of
the siIurisn Period - He IVES Always
Rover and . scsvenger.
4 There IL daubtless. many a good house
wife In this world whoywonders saf she \
ohases about the kitchen and the pantry, |
poking into dark hooks and crannies with |
her pail of hot water or box of poison, |
whatever the little pests called cockroaches |
are here for anyway and what good they |
do. These questions would be rather DIM
cult to answer. for. like most Of natures
soavengers--and they or most Of their
varieties ut least have certainly been such
In the past-they have obtruded In these
times of advanced sanitary arrangements
and "modern Improvements" where their
services might well be dispensed with.
But there IL no doubt, however much We
may begrudge the little insects few tiny,
warm crevioes In our homes or an ocoa-
sional burial place In our buildings and
| cuisine at the summer hotel, that by all
recognized laws Of priority they have at
least rs much right here az we have, Tor
their very, very great-graDdsires were set
/
progenitors were even thought OF.
In Bible times their presence was far
more disagreeably felt than In our own,
both ON account Of the different and more
slovenly mode Of living that prevailed
| among those peoples and Of the warm ell
,nate of the countries of which the Bible
| tells. And It Is probable, although no dis
tinot mention Ia made of the oookroach In
the Scriptures as among the animals OF
| Noah, that IL was nevertheless In the very
vanguard of the procession that so placidly
wended its way into the ark. Even the
first Of her kind. the wife Of Adam, was
unquestionably acquainted with the little
six footed creatures. But Eve was very
happy 60 lucky sort of dame and was as
little troubled with household cares and
victuals as she was with fashion. and 1t Is
likely that the fact Of their existence did
not weigh heavily upon her mind.
The antiquity Of the cockroach, how
ever, Is not reckoned by the thousands OF
years with which we commonly compute
our vast stretches of historic time, but by
the millions and millions upon millions
It's beginning takes us back through misty
and unfabled ages, past the epochs Of. the
| gigantic mastodon and the tremendous
glaciers that swept over the northern part
, of this land, to disappear beneath warm
err southern sun; past the epoch of the
, huge and horrible reptiles that wandered
over the universal marshlands and boys
and fitted through the air with their
, strange, Tapping wings, like the fiends In
. Dante's "Inferno;" past the long period
of the luxuriant solitudes Of the carbon
ferrous forests, when the great forces OF
| nature were at work storing away the rich
beds of coal into which we delve today
past the time when whales and giant
| sharks and sea monsters dashed the water:
! into foam, the monarchs of the oceans
| Their origin carries us back to the very
. commencement of things. They were on'
of the earliest of the forms of life and thu
pioneers of insect life. AS some one ha
said, "They are the true aristocrats of In
T scots, l." the kings of their kind.
:. Learned savants and researchers tell u
q that the most primitive of cockroaches ar
4 found deep down In what are known n
e the siluriau rocks, which were formed sucl
2. countless ages ago that they don't attemp
= to count them at all They were not YER
q unlike their lineal descendants of today
O the principal difference being as to thei
Is wings, and 1t is probable that should on
l. of these ancient creatures be in some wa
d resurrected and go scurrying across tn
d kitchen floor 1t would be stepped on wit
Il as little thought and conjunction as ar
y its modern kindred. AS these wings cor
8. stitute the chief and often the only mean
IS of studying their species, the bodies hay
l. ing in most cases been wholly dissolve
al by putrefaction, IL Is perhaps worthy {
l. note that their development was more pei
,e feet than in the present varieties-excepl
"a ing the hind or under wings, which al
ss almost identical-and that they are pr
he served in the fossils to the minutest retict
to lation of the membrane.
re With the lapse of ages the forms an
ID shape of tho wings gradually underwent
re change, or rather q series OF changes,
in well as the size of the body, and the or1l
70 inal family spread out into multitude {
In Species. 1t has always been law of nj
~ | ture that all forms of life shall advan'
from simple uniformity to a complex d
versity or from homogeneity to heterog
neity, and it Is curious to observe that I
e. less than 1000 species existing prior to Il
az tertiary epoch, when the first mammal IL
VI was introduced into the world, have bee
70 thus far discovered and described, mar
Oh of them being found In the coal measur
> of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. III
ny Investigations of late years have demo-
'ly strated in fact that America, as is Sout
ey America today, was the most fruitful
VI any part of the globe, both in Its varieti
on and its numbers. When we remember tn
'se there are at present from 700 to 800 So
cies, that their numbers have been steadi
n decreasing for some millions Of years al
ne that their kind once comprised one-half
m the ancient or paleozoo insects, we CT
no form some vague conception OF the prope
m lions Of our oockroach population OF I
ny past.
ate The cockroach of modern times is col
nc monty smaller than Its progenitor; bl
be- being of the same rowing. habits and
IN quisitive nature, has become famo
In traveller In these days Of worldwide col
Ter merce and communications. In the G
IN days--not to speak Of the present days
to the ships were oyerrun with them, as "
ray as with great hories Of rats, and as tn
ay. touched at this port and that on their trs
ing voyages there occurred widespre
al scattering of species that has been soul
the of never ending regret and tribulation
their involuntary hosts. 1t was In Il