BLATTELLA GERMANIC A. 89 



morning. The ootheca contains some 18-20 egg- 

 chambers on each side, and a case is recorded in which 

 40 young were produced from a single ootheca. The 

 female with this ootheca was captured by Keys in a 

 restaurant at Plymouth. While the female is carrying 



*/ *^ 



the ootheca the suture is not vertical but directed to 

 one side. 



NYMPH. --On first emerging from the egg the nymph 

 is colourless. AVhen Hearing maturity it is very dark, 

 except the legs and the lateral margins of the thorax 

 which are tawny : the antennas are moderately dark. 

 The two longitudinal bands on the pronotum are very 

 wide and but just separated by a paler line. The 

 width of the nymph is very much greater, compared 

 with the length, than that of the adult. P>. germanica 

 is credited with rapid growth, attaining full develop- 

 ment in a few months. 



VARIATION.- -I?, germanica is not a variable species; 

 but it might be mentioned that Prince exhibited at 

 the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society, 

 on 19 October 1903, a specimen taken at Birkenhead 

 considerably darker than the type. 



DATE. --Since in Britain this cockroach lives under 

 artificial conditions, and where the temperature is 

 usually above the normal, breeding is probably con- 

 tinuous, and examples in all stages might be expected 

 to occur together, as is the case with the common 

 cockroach, B. orientals. I have records of the ootheca 

 being carried at Zool. Gardens about 1st of April 

 (Lncfis), at Derby 28th April (Pull en), in Birmingham 

 at the end of May (Imms), and at Plymouth in 

 September ( Keys) . 



HABITS, ETC.- -15. germanica and the four species 

 that follow it are not indigenous in Britain, and must 

 be described as " naturalised aliens." This species 

 occurs wild in woods in Russia as well as in Prussia, 

 and there seems to be no good reason why it should 

 not establish itself out-of-doors in these islands. 



