176 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



speaking of our common species, which has now 

 become thoroughly acclimatised in England, the 

 writer of this part of Cassell's "Natural History" 

 says (vi. p. 133): "Another species, which has 

 attained a distribution almost as wide, though not 

 so general, is the American cockroach {Periplaneta 



ship, and may be almost constantly met with in the 

 docks, especially when tropical produce is being 

 landed." * This brief, and not very lucid account 

 becomes baffling when compared with that with 

 which Figuier favours us. He says it is from an 

 inch to an inch-and-a-quarter long, that it infests 



Fig. 102. 



Fig. 101. 



Fig. 103. 



American Cockroach. — Fig. 101. — a, young or larval stage. Fig. 102. — Full grown, but wingless. Fig. 103. c, perfect insect ; 

 a, cigar-shaped processes or cerci ; b, smaller cerci ; c, podical plates. All natural size, from fresh specimens. 



Americana), a native of the warmer parts of America, 

 whence it has been carried in ships to the ports of 

 nearly all parts of the world. It is a larger and 

 redder species than the common cockroach {P. 

 orientalis), and the tegmina and wings are fully 

 developed, the former passing beyond the extremity 

 of the abdomen. This insect is common on board 



ships, running about at night over the sleeping 

 passengers and devouring the food, that it is met 

 with in all parts of the world ; and adds that the 

 common cockroach is "a small, hideous animal of a 



* See similarly Circle of the Sciences, ii. 359 ; The Insect 

 World, by Figuier, p. 287 ; Sketches of British Insects, by 

 Houghton, p. 49 ; Tlie Cockroach, by Miall & Deny, &c. 



