Blaps

Blaps, a genus of Black Beetles (q.v.), with more than 100 species. They are dark and darkness-loving forms, wingless, leisurely in their movements, feeding on dead vegetable matter, and with the power of ejecting for several inches an acrid fluid of pungent odour. Blaps mortisaga is a common British species, of about an inch long, and of a shining black colour. It is sometimes called Darkling Beetle, and Churchyard Beetle, and sometimes seems to share with the Cockroach (q.v.) the appellation of Black Beetle. It is a frequent companion of the cockroach in pantries and cellars, and used to be thought a messenger of death, but is rather frequent for such an ominous function.—Blaps sulcata is cooked with butter and eaten by Turkish women in Egypt, under the notion that it will make them fat, this being, in their estimation, one of the chief points of beauty.