26 COCKROACHES. 
influence of some instinct prompting them to search for new quarters. 
The day was particularly dark and drizzly, and, to quote Dr. Howard’s 
words, ‘‘ The darkness of the day is significant, and there is no reason 
to suppose that similar migrations do not frequently occur, but un- 
doubtedly, under ordinary circumstances, at night. This is the way 
that new houses become infested.’’—(L. O. H.) * 
Returning now to observations of English localities of the German 
Cockroach, Mr. Malcolm Burr, F.E.S., writing to me from Dormans 
Park, East Grinstead, favoured me with the following notes :— 
‘German Cockroach.—I have found this species in several of the 
London restaurants when dining, and have received them from others. 
Also it is very numerous at Bradford, and I have found it in hotels 
at Folkestone.” [Hastings and Aldershot were also mentioned by 
Mr. Burr as localities where he had reason to believe them to be 
present, but had not himself seen them.] ‘‘ Brunner von Wattenwyl 
(‘ Prodromus der Europaischen Orthopteren,’ p. 47) says t :—‘ In Wien 
kam sie vor 20 Jahren nur vereinzelt vor und ist jetzt allgemein 
verbreitet, indem sie die Periplaneta orientalis, L. verdrangt.’ It is a 
perfectly cosmopolitan species. Although germanica has driven out 
orientalis at Vienna, I am informed by Mr. J. W. Carter that at Bradford 
both these species are very numerous, while Periplaneta americana, L., 
which used to be abundant, has disappeared. At the Zoological 
Gardens in London, Periplaneta americana, L., and Phyllodromia ger- 
manica, L., are both exceedingly numerous in some of the houses; the 
keeper’s give the large americana to some of the animals to eat, vide 
EK. M. M. vii. (New Series), p. 278.”"—(M. B.) 
The Periplaneta americana, the American Cockroach or Black 
Beetle, is yet another kind which may need looking after here more 
than is commonly supposed. This is from an inch and a quarter to 
an inch and three-quarters in length, the fore body yellowish, with 
brown mottlings, and the horns exceptionally long, ‘‘ reaching con- 
siderably beyond the tips of the closed wings, which themselves are 
long and powerful, and when closed reach beyond the tip of the 
abdomen.” 
A good detailed description will be found in the work mentioned 
below, { in which also the wing-cases of the male are said to be 
much longer than the abdomen, the legs and under side pale, also 
the upper side of the abdomen at the part nearest the fore body. The 
* ‘Insect Life’ (United States Department of Agriculture), vol. vii. No. 4, 
p. 349. Washington, 1895. 
t ‘In Vienna previously to twenty years ago they appeared solitarily, now they 
are everywhere distributed, and consequently have dispossessed the Periplaneta 
orientalis, L.”—(Trans. E. A. O.) 
{ ‘The Blattarie of Australia and Polynesia,’ by J. G. O. Tepper, F.L.S., &c. 
