52 



PeRIPLANETA ORIENTALIS. LinuGus. 



Length, about four-fifths of an inch. Color, dark brown. Pro- 

 notura not banded ; legs of a lighter color than the body. Wings 

 and wing covers of the male well developed, 

 reaching nearly to the end of the abdomen. 

 Wings wanting in the female, and wing covers 

 very small, not more than one-fifth of an inch 

 long. 



The female lays sixteen eggs in two I'ows in a 

 large horny capsule, which she carries with her 

 for seven or eight days, when she drops it in a 

 warm and sheltered place. When the young 

 hatch, they discharge a fluid which softens the 

 cement along the edge of the capsule, and ena- 

 l)les them to escape without assistance. The 

 young larvae are white at first, differing from 

 Peripiam-fa oVientaiis. the adult Only in sizc, color and the absence of 

 wings. They run about with great activity, feeding upon any 

 starchy food they can find. 



This species is nocturnal in its habits, and flees at the first 

 appearance of light. It is a great pest, for it devours almost any- 

 thing that comes in its way, as flour, bread, meat, cheese, woolen 

 clothes, and even old leather. Various methods have been sug- 

 gested for their destruction, but one of the best is to use a small 

 wooden box, having a circular hole at the top, with a glass rim, out 

 of which they cannot escape. It should be baited at night, and 

 the contents thrown into hot water in the morning. 



Genus Platamodes. Scudder (1862). 



" A genus more closely allied to Periplaneta than to any other, 

 but readily distinguishable from it by its much narrower and more 

 elongated body, — the sides being sub-parallel to one another 

 throughout their whole extent, while in Periplayieta the abdomen 

 is much swollen. The wings and wing covers extend beyond the 

 abdomen, the latter being well rounded at the tip. The supra-anal 

 plate is regularly rounded, but lacks altogether the fissuration seen 

 in Periplayieta ; but at the same time it is not squarely docked, as 

 in Stylopyga. The anal cerci are somewhat shorter and not so, 

 flattened as in Periplaneta, while the anal styles are very short, and 

 turned abruptly downwards. In Periplaneta the sub-genital plate 

 does not extend so far backward as the supra-anal. In Platamodes 

 it extends backward farther. A further distinction between the 



