62 FAMILY II. BLATTIDJS. THE COCKROACHES. 



and a careful dissection of the latter showing no trace of either 

 eggs or ootheca. 



Shelford (190G, 235) states that "the position of the ootheca 

 when carried by the female before deposition is not a character 

 of subfamily importance." I do not regard it as even a character 

 of specific importance, for in two females of each of two species 

 of Parcoblatta at hand with ootheca protruding, viz., uhleriana 

 and pennsylvanica, one of each has the ootheca projecting with 

 edge uppermost, the suture above, the other with side uppermost, 

 the suture at side. Hebard (1917a, 4) has also recorded the fe- 

 males of P. pennsylvanica "with ootheca both dorsad and laterad," 

 and has mentioned also two closely related species of Cariblatta 

 with similar conditions. 



All young cockroaches resemble the parent in form, but are 

 wholly wingless, the wings not appearing until after the fifth or 

 last moult. The young are often mistaken for the mature by per- 

 sons who have not made a careful study of the life history of the 

 insects; and those of one or two well known and common forms 

 have, in the past, been described or figured as distinct wingless 

 species by some of the leading Entomologists of the country. 



Most roaches are omnivorous but they live chiefly upon animal 

 and vegetable refuse. The majority of our species, especially 

 those which are natives, live under leaves, bark and other cover 

 in the country, but many of the introduced species are domiciliary 

 and where present in numbers are among the worst of insect 

 household pests. In Brazil they are so common in country houses 

 that nobody pays much attention to them. There they have, says 

 Herbert H. Smith, "an unpleasant way of getting into provision 

 boxes and they deface books, shoes and sometimes clothing, and 

 eat off the wall paper in unsightly patches in search of the paste 

 beneath. At Corumba, in the house where we were staying there 

 were nearly a dozen children, and every one of them had their eye- 

 lashes more or less eaten off by the cockroaches, a large brown 

 species. The eyelashes were bitten off irregularly, in some places 

 quite close to the lid, and as the children had very long black eye- 

 lashes, their appearance thus defaced was odd enough.'' 



REMEDIES FOR ROACHES. A common remedy for roaches consists in 

 the liberal use of pyrethrum powder or Inihach, and when this is persist- 

 ed in considerable relief will be gained. It is not a perfect remedy, how- 

 ever, and is at test but a temporary expedient, while it has the additional 

 disadvantage of soiling the shelves or other objects over which it is dust- 

 ed. When used it should be fresh and liberally applied. Roaches are 



