320 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I4I 



long. Aiinandale (1910) described the destruction in Calcutta of ter- 

 mites by Periplaneta americana. During a heavy rain storm many ter- 

 mites flew into the dining room and were set upon by the cockroaches 

 which seized them with their mandibles and began to gnaw their abdo- 

 mens. If disturbed, the cockroaches carried the termites away in 

 their mandibles without using their legs to seize, hold, or carry the 

 prey. Sometimes only the abdomen, but other times the whole body 

 with the exception of the wings, was devoured. Perhaps this observa- 

 tion led Allyn (Anonymous, 1937) to theorize that, first, cockroaches 

 could eradicate termites from houses, and then the blattids in turn 

 could be eliminated. Falls (1938) has pointed out the unfeasibility of 

 this idea. Blattclla vaga has shown some tendency to eat plant lice 

 (Flock, 1941a). Certain small cockroaches found beneath cane leaf- 

 sheaths, in the Philippine Islands, preyed in part upon leafhoppers 

 (Uichanco, in Williams et al., 1931). 



Takahashi (1924) stated that the American cockroach will eat the 

 eggs of the hemipteron Cantao ocellatus (Thunberg). Cunliffe 

 (1952) observed mite-infested cockroaches {Blatta orientalis, Blat- 

 tclla germanica, and/or Periplaneta americana) dislodge and eat the 

 mite Pirneliaphilus podapolipophagus. Sonan (1924) reported that 

 cockroaches {P. americana and P. australasiae) devoured the egg 

 clusters and first instar larvae of Prodenia litula and the first instar 

 larvae of Attaciis atlas which were being reared in the laboratory. 

 Lederer (1952) stated that Periplaneta americana ate reptile eggs in 

 the aquarium at Frankfurt am Main. Pettit (1940) stated that cock- 

 roaches "are said to have destroyed a large colony of dermestids used 

 to skeletonize carcasses at the University of Kansas." 



DeFraula (1780) believed that his silent "gryllon" [obviously 

 Blatta orientalis from his drawings; see Willemet (1784)] was the 

 enemy of the chirping species of cricket, because after the cockroach 

 became established in his home he no longer heard crickets chirping. 

 Gilbert White (1905 ed.), writing in England in the late i8th century, 

 stated that "Poda says that these [Blatta orientalis] and house crickets 

 will not associate together ; but he is mistaken in that assertion" ; 

 however, in August 1792 White noted that "Since the hlattac have 

 been so much kept under, the crickets have greatly increased in 

 number." For several years Jolivet (1950) had observed changes in a 

 mixed population of Blatta orientalis and Acheta domesticiis in an old 

 kitchen in France. He suggested that the cyclical fluctuations in the 

 relative abundance of the cockroaches and crickets might be caused by 

 reciprocal predatism with one species more susceptible than the other 



