CHAPTER IT 



COCKROACHES {Periplaneta) 



Part II 



In Russia the small Asiatic cockroach (P. orientalis) has 

 everywhere driven before it its greater congener (P. germanica). 



(Dak WIN, Origin of Species.) 



Cockroaches do a very considerable amount 

 of damage by consuming food- supplies. But 

 they do not stop at food-supplies : woollen 

 clothing, newspapers — not a really great loss — 

 blacking, ink, leather, and even emery-paper, 

 are all to their taste, and, being of an economical 

 frame of mind, they devour their own cast 

 skins and the dead bodies of their relatives. 

 The late Professor Moseley recorded how on 

 one occasion, when on the circumnavigating 

 tour of H.M.S. Challenger, a number of cock- 

 roaches took up their abode in his cabin and 

 devoured parts of his boots, ' nibbling off all 

 the margins of leather projecting beyond the 

 seams on the upper leathers.' He further 

 records : — 



16 



