COCKROACHES, 3 
While the domestic species are few in number, nearly a thousand 
species of Blattidee have been described and preserved in collections, 
and it is estimated that perhaps upward of 5,000 species occur at the 
present time in different parts of the world. The great majority of 
the roaches live outdoors, and in warm countries have the reputation 
of living on plants and sometimes being very injurious. This belief 
has been recently questioned by Mr. J. G. O. Tepper, of South Austra- 
lia, who states that in his experience these insects are eminently car- 
nivorous, feeding on caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects, -and 
that with the increase of certain species in his gardens, notably Epi- 
lampra notabilis, ‘“‘the herbivorous larve disappear rapidly.’ Mr. 
Tepper points out that the injury to plants occasionally noted where 
roaches are abundant may very possibly be due to other insects or to 
snails which again have attracted the roaches and on which the latter 
feed. That roaches will eat fruits and the starchy tubers and other 
products of plants is a common observation, but that they ever 
subsist on the green foliage of plants may be open to doubt. 
The roach is one of the most primitive and ancient insects, in the 
sense of its early appearance on the globe, fossil remains of roaches 
occurring in abundance in the early coal formations, ages before the 
more common forms of insect life of the present day had begun to 
appear. The species now existing are few in number in comparison 
with the abundance of forms in the Carboniferous age, which might 
with propriety be called the age of cockroaches, the moisture and 
warmth of that distant period being alike favorable to plant growth 
and to the multiplication of this family of insects. 
The house roaches of to-day were undoubtedly very early associated 
with man in his primitive dwellings, and through the agency of com- 
merce have been carried to all quarters of the globe. On shipboard 
they are always especially numerous and troublesome, the moisture 
and heat of the vessels being particularly favorable to their develop- 
ment. It is supposed that the common oriental cockroach, or 
so-called ‘‘black beetle,’ of Europe! is of Asiatic origin, and it is 
thought to have been introduced into Europe in the last two or three 
hundred years. The original home of this and the other common 
European species ? is, however, obscure, and in point of fact they have 
probably both been associated with man from the earliest times, and 
naturally would come into the newly settled portions of Europe from 
the older civilizations of Asia and Egypt. 
Of the other two domestic species especially considered in this 
paper, the Australian roach,* as its name implies, is a native of Aus- 
tralia, and the American roach,‘ of subtropical and tropical America. 
1 Blatta orientalis L. ’ Periplaneta australasiz Fab. 
2 Blattella germanica L. 4 Periplaneta americana L. 
