436 ANIMALS INTRODUCED UNAWARES 



landings in Britain and have attempted to gain a foothold. 

 The most common of these is the American Cockroach 

 (Periplaneta americana] (Fig. 69, 2) about i \ inches long, a 

 much larger species than the common "Black Beetle, " and light 

 brown in colour. It is a native of tropical America, and ac- 

 cording to Professor V. L. Kellogg occurs in such numbers on 

 sailing ships entering San Francisco after their long half- 

 year voyages round the Horn, that the sailors while sleeping 

 wear gloves to prevent their finger-nails from being gnawed 

 by the voracious hordes which tenant the whole ship. In 

 some cases the opening of boxes and barrels of biscuits after 

 a voyage has led only to the horrible discovery that the 

 biscuits have been entirely replaced by crawling masses of 

 Cockroaches. It is not surprising to find that this pest should 

 have travelled with traffic from its native home in Central 

 America and Mexico, far northwards in the l>nited States 

 of America, and it is little wonder that the Ship Cockroach 

 should appear frequently in our seaports, though it seldom 

 succeeds here in establishing permanent colonies. It is 

 common in the London Zoological Garden in Regent's 

 Park, but in Scotland thrives only in greenhouses, as at the 

 Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, the Glasgow Botanic 

 Garden, Woodside Conservatory, Paisley, and elsewhere, 

 although spasmodic occurrences have been reported from 

 various parts of Edinburgh and Leith. 



The Australian Cockroach (Periplaneta australasiae] 

 (Fig. 69, 5), a native of the Australian Pacific region, has also 

 followed the trail of commerce throughout the world, though 

 its tropical preferences have limited its power of colonizing 

 temperate lands. It differs from its American relative in being 

 deeper in colour, and in having a yellow stripe outlining the 

 shield-shaped portions of the back, behind the head (pro- 

 notum). Like the trans-Atlantic species it is found in Britain 

 only in warm glass-houses, some of its more definite stations 

 being in the Botanic Gardens of Kew and Cambridge, in 

 Belfast, in the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, and in 

 Paisley; but in the United States of America, it has taken 

 a firm hold and is common in Florida and the other warm 

 southern States. 



Much less in size, only half an inch long, but as a colonist 

 in Britain ranking next to the Common Cockroach, is the 



