157 



enables them to escape without assistance, leaving their infantile recep- 

 tacle as entire as it was before they quitted it. 



The Oriental cockroach, as its name indicates, is a native of Asia, but 

 has been carried from one country to another by shipping. It delights in 

 filth and darkness, and hence in the holds of vessels, the cellars and base- 

 ments of tenement houses, and in all damp, dirty places it swarms hy 

 thousands, undoubtedly doing much good as a scavenger, but infinitely 

 more harm on account of its omnivorous and insatiable appetite. Like most 

 other members of the family it feeds mainly at night, appearing to detest 

 and avoid the light, as one can readily prove by taking a lighted lamp 

 suddenly into its haunts, when a hurried scrambling will take place to- 

 wards its daylight retreats, and but a few moments will elapse before the 

 last of the busy marauders will have disappeared. 



This is probably the most carnivorous of all our Blattidto, though, like 

 most others, it is fond of starchy food. It is known to feed upon meat, 

 cheese, woolen clothes, and even old leather, and is said to be especially 

 fond of the festive " bed bug," Acanthia lectularia L., which soon disap- 

 pears from a house infested with the Oriental roach. 



In Indiana this species is found in all the larger towns and cities, and 

 is one of the most noisome and disagreeable insects with which certain 

 classes of their inhabitants have to contend.* It seldom occurs in houses 

 in thinly settled localities, and never, as far as my observation goes, be- 

 neath the bark of logs and stumps. 



2. Periplaxeta americaxa, (L.) The American Cockroach. 



Periplaneta americana, Burmeister, Handb. der Entom., II., 1838, 503. 

 Scudder, Boston Jour. Nat. Hist., VII., 1862, 410. 

 Riley, Stand. Nat. Hist., II., 1884, 172. 

 Id., Insect Life, I., 1888, 68; II., 1890, 266. 

 Fernald. Orth. N. Eng., 1888, 51. 

 Kakerlac americana, Serville, Hist. Nat. des Orthop, 1839, 68. 

 Blatta americana, Rathvon, T7. S. Ag. Rep., 1862, 375: (In part.) 



Packard, Third Rep. U. S. Ent. Comm., 1883, 309, pis. 



XXV.— XXXV. 



From the Oriental roach this species may be readily known by its larger 



size and its longer tegmina and wings, which, in both sexes, reach beyond 



the tip of the abdomen. Thy supra-anal plate is more pointed and the 



:: For remedies see remarks under Phyllodromia gcrmanica or " Croton bug. 



