4 MORE MINOR HORRORS 



in 1584, the San Felipe, a Spanish East 

 Indiaman, laden with spices and burdened 

 with a great multitude of flying cockroaches 

 on board. 



This species was Periplaneta orientalis; but 

 there is another and a larger species, which 

 presumably came into England from the West 

 later than its Eastern cousin P. americana 

 — which can frequently be seen in England 

 running about in the cages in our zoological 

 gardens — but it is not on exhibition, it is a 

 by-product, and is not counted in the fee 

 for admission to the gardens. 



Latter tells us there are ten species of 

 Blattodea which occur in Britain; but only 

 three of these are indigenous, and these three 

 all belong to the genus Ectobia. Ectohias are 

 smaller than cockroaches, and do not frequent 

 human habitations, but live in shrubs, under 

 rubbish heaps, &c. Some species of Ectobia are, 

 however, very destructive and have been known 

 to destroy in one day the whole accumulation 

 of dried but not properly salted fish in a Lap- 

 land village. Of the remaining species of cock- 

 roach most are local, and occur sporadically 

 in particular factories, or places where food is 

 stored but they are not very widely spread. 



As we have said above, P. orientalis is 

 the common English cockroach, P. americana 

 occurs especially in zoological gardens and 



