1896 THE MICROSCOPE. l63 



The epicranium (a) covers the dorsal and posterior 

 region of the head. It has a median suture or seam (fig. 

 4) that divides anteriorly into two, running out, right 

 and left, to pale oval patches, the fenestrge, meaning win- 

 dows, the clypeus (fig. 4 e) meaning a shield. The 

 gense (fig. 4 t) cover the sides. The left gena has been 

 removed in the figure. 



Between the head and the thorax is a constriction, the 

 neck, on which are seven sclerites. 



The prothorax is not rigidly articulated onto the meso- 

 thorax and its pronotum is longer than either the 

 mesonotum (dorsal aspect of the mesothorax (fig. 3 e), or 

 the metanotum (dorsal aspect of the metathorax (f). The 

 abdomen (fig. 3 g) is of ten somites. Tlie full number 

 cannot always be counted. When the cockroach is looked 

 at from without, some of the somites slip under and over 

 one another like the joints of a telescope. The abdomen 

 is broad from side to side, flattened from above down- 

 wards. 



The food of the cockroaches is mixed. They can eat 

 pretty much everything but they prefer dead animal 

 matter. They eat their own cast off skins and egg cap- 

 sules. They do not eat a great deal and grow but slowly. 

 One of them has been known to live as long as five years. 



The parts surrounding the mouth may be seen after fix- 

 ing the cockroach on its back by pins passing through the 

 sides of the pronotum. Bend the head from its reflexed 

 and deflexed position forwards and upwards, and fix it 

 by crossed pins. 



The lips are seen to be two; an upper, the labrnm, (fig. 

 4 r), and the lower, the labium (tig. 5 r, s). The labrum 

 is articulated on the front edge of the clypeus (fig. 4 e) 

 which represents the front view of the head. The labium 

 is made up of two parts, the mentum (fig. 5 r) and the 

 sub-mentum (fig. 5s) which represents the back view of 

 the head, mentum, the chin. The labium has also certain 



