SUBFAMILY IV. IJLATTIX.10. 101 



to book bindings. The backs., sometimes entirely, of both cloth 

 and leather bound books, are eaten off to gel at the starchy paste 

 used in the binding." 



The young of the American roach require about a year to reach 

 maturity. The rate of growth of it and other species depends, 

 however, largely on the food and temperature" conditions, and un- 

 der unfavorable circumstances the nymph stage is much prolonged. 

 The abundance of roaches is, therefore, apparently not accounted 

 for so much by their rapidity of multiplication as by their unusual 

 ability to preserve themselves from ordinary means of destruction 

 and by the scarcity of natural enemies. 



32. PERIPLANETA BRUNNEA Burmeister, 1838, 503. Large Brown Roach. 



Male Smaller and slightly broader than americana. Color much as 

 there, the pronotum with discal brown blotches much less distinct, some 

 times almost wanting, the disc then yellow with hind margin blackish- 

 brown and side margins more narrowly so (Fig. 32, F. ) Interocular area 

 broader, about two-thirds that between the bases of antennae. Thorax 

 wider, more strongly elliptical, less narrowed in front, the discal impres- 

 sions less evident. Tegmina and cerci shorter, the latter (4.3 5 mm.) 

 acute but much less tapering. Median dorsal abdominal segment with a 

 broad, shallow depression at middle of base, this bearing a heavy tuft oi 

 silky hairs. Supra-anal plate wholly corneous, entire or very feebly 

 notched, its apex broadly rounded. Subgenital plate as in americana, the 

 stlyes as long as the plate. Female Differs from that of americana as 

 does the $ , and in having the supra-anal plate much less prolonged and 

 but feebly notched at apex (Fig. 32, H.) Length of body, $, 25.128.5, 

 $, 26.533; of pronotum, $, 6.77.9, $, 7.98.9; of tegmina, $, 24.3 

 29.9, $, 23.826.5 mm. Width of pronotum, $, 910.8, 9, 10.6 11. 7; 

 tegmina, $, 8.59.9, $, 9.310 mm. 



Ormond, Utopia, Cape Sable and Key West, Fla., February 

 23 -April 11 (IT 7 . *S'. B.}. Taken in houses, beneath bark of stump 

 and at light. Recorded also from nine other localities south of 

 Gainesville and Hastings, Fla. Outside of Florida it is known in 

 this country only from Asheville, N. Car. ( advent! ve), Billy's 

 Island and Thomasville, Ga., and Willacy Co., Texas. It is a 

 house-dwelling, circumtropical species, very common in Tropical 

 America. Pcriplaneta tnntcalti Krauss is a synonym. 



33. PKRIPLAXETA AUSTRALASIA (Fabricius), 1775, 271. Australian Roach. 



Male Smaller than americana, more slender than brunnea. Vertex 

 black; face yellow, mottled with brown; pronotum yellow, with a large 

 sharply defined bilobed black spot, hind margin rather broadly, the other 

 margins narrowly edged with black; tegmina reddish-brown, the basal 

 third with a narrow yellow submarginal stripe; legs and under surface 



