THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 171 



THE BLATTID.^ OF OxNTARIO. 



BY E. M. WALKER, lORONTO. 



The Blatlidae, or cockroaches, are represented in Ontario by eleven 

 species, only two of which, however, are natives, the others being, with 

 two or perhaps three exceptions, merely accidental visitors from 

 the south. 



Ischnoptera pejisylvafiica (De Geer). — Generally distributed through- 

 out Ontario as far north as the Temagami District, and locally common 

 or even abundant. I have specimens from the following localities : Point 

 Pelee; Toronto; De Grassi Point, Lake Simcoe; Stony Lake, Peterborough 

 Co.; Lake Joseph, Muskoka District; Go Home Bay, Georgian Bay; 

 Temagami Park. 



This cockroach is very abundant on the rocky, sparsely-wooded 

 country about Go Home Bay, where it occurs in rotten logs and 

 under loose baik. It readily takes up its abode in the summer 

 cottages, where it becomes as much at home in the kitchen and 

 larder as its cosmopolitan relatives of the city, and is often regarded by 

 the residents as a nuisance. I came across it also inconsiderable numbers 

 on a rocky island in Stony Lake, Peterborough Co., while on a canoe 

 trip. They were first seen at night running up and down a tree trunk in 

 some numbers. Our provision bags became infested with them, and 

 remained so during the rest of the trip. 



More annoying still is their habit of eating the paste from book- 

 bindings and nibbling the surfaces of the covers. On my first visit to the 

 Georgian Bay Biological Station, being unacquainted with this habit, I left 

 a water-colour drawing, which I had just made, upon a book-shelf in the 

 laboratory. Next morning only a ghqst of it was to be seen, so thoroughly 

 had the cockroaches nibbled off the pigments from the surface of 

 the paper. 



The adults appear about the middle of June, remaining until some 

 time in August. They are most abundant during July, llie species 

 hibernates in the nymph state. Full-grown nymphs are found in the 

 latter part of May. 



Ischnoptera borealis Rehn. — An adult male of this species, labelled 



