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COCKROACHES. 
German Cockroach; “Croton Bug” (U.S.A.); “Steam Flies.” 
Phyllodromia germanica, Linn. American Cockroach. Peri- 
planeta americana, Linn. 
PHYLLODROMIA GERMANICA.—1-3, adult insects; 2, with wings expanded; 3, 
female with egg-sac attached; 4, egg-sac;—all magnified; 5 and 6, young, still 
wingless forms. After figures by Prof. Riley, and specimens. 
For some years back enquiries have been sent me from time to 
time regarding the best methods of getting rid of the exceedingly 
inconvenient presence of the small yellowish brown, striped Cockroach, 
generally known as the ‘‘ German Cockroach,’’ but frequently, in the 
United States, as the ‘‘Croton Bug.”’ 
In one instance, the infestation was complained of as causing great 
annoyance on one of the lines of steamships from the north of Ireland 
to the United States of America; in another (reported in 1896), a good 
deal of detail was given of amount of presence, and of means which 
proved only partially successful in getting rid of the pest in a large 
hotel in one of our chief manufacturing towns in the north of England, 
where it was mentioned that ‘‘ We are, like most other hotels, much 
troubled with what are called ‘ Steam Flies.’ ”’ 
It appears now, however, that this small kind of Cockroach is very 
widely distributed in this country, and by reason of its greater rapidity 
of multiplication than our long established kind (popularly, though 
very incorrectly, known as ‘Black Beetles”), and also its greater 
destructiveness, it would be such a serious inconvenience for this 
species to be generally established with us, that it may be of use to 
refer to it again this year. 
