PERIPLANETA AUSTBALASLE. 109 



may be South-eastern Asia or tropical Africa. It is 

 now a cosmopolitan species. It is established in 

 Britain and other parts of Europe, while it is 

 recorded from Madeira, St. Thomas, Batavia, Columbia, 

 Padang, Florida, Central America, and Brazil at least. 



DISTRIBUTION IN BRITAIN. 



Occurrences of this cockroach,, which have come under my 

 notice, are fairly numerous; but, as with P. americana, it is 

 nob always clear whether the references are to residents or 

 casuals. Early in 1886 McLachlaii received for identifica- 

 tion several examples of P. australasiae which had been 

 found, probably in a warehouse, at Belfast.* Although it 

 had already been noticed as occurring* in several continental 

 ports, this was thought to be its first appearance as a British 

 insect. There are, however, specimens in one of Westwood's 

 "Economic Cabinets" in the Hope Museum at Oxford. One 

 of these is described as, " destroying orchids end of August 

 1865"; and the other as, "doing mischief in orchid-house in 

 1871." C. W. Dale could carry the record even farther back, 

 for he sayst : "There appears to be a mistaken idea in the 

 minds of some entomologists that these [P. australasiae and 

 P. americana, etc.] are recent additions to the British fauna. 

 This is not so, for I have specimens of the former taken in a 

 grocer's shop at Sherborne as long ago as 1839, but which 

 have stood in my collection as representatives of the latter." 

 In the " Dale Collection," no\v in Oxford, two examples- 

 an imago and a nymph judging by the labels, are the 

 specimens referred to. I first made acquaintance with this 

 species as a British insect on 20 April 1895 when Mrs. W. D. 

 Drury gave me a specimen which she took out in the open 

 on that date in Kew Gardens. Records so far received or 

 noticed are : 



ENGLAND. Cambridgeshire: Cambridge, Botanic- Gardens, 

 flourishing in 1893 (D. Sharp). Cornwall: Truro, one, May 

 1906 (Rollaston). Derbyshire: Accidentally imported with 

 plants from Queensland, and first noticed at Calke Abbey, in 

 1897; now a resident, breeding in one of the outhouses 

 (Harpur-Crewe, fide Jourdain, 1905); Buxtoii, 1904 (Sopp). 

 Dorset: Sherborne (C. W. Dale). Gloucestershire: (Edwards). 

 Hants; Brockenhurst, 1906, a nymph amongst bananas ( If. E. 

 Sharp) ; Bishop's Waltham, at Swanmore Park Gardens, 



* ' Ent. Mo. Mag.' 1887, p. 235. 

 f ' Entomologist/ 1896, p. 164. 



