178 INJURIOUS AND USEFUL INSECTS 



its original home. By the end of the sixteenth century it 

 had reached England and Holland, but a hundred years 

 later it was little known in remote villages. Ships have now 

 carried this species to nearly all warm and temperate climates. 

 Other cockroaches, large and small, have similarly spread 

 by means of commerce. The American cockroach, the 

 Australian cockroach, and the German cockroach have been 

 introduced in many countries to which they are not native. 



Cockroaches will eat almost everything that is consumed 

 in our houses, and they do not altogether refuse very tough 

 and indigestible substances, such as leather. They are fond 

 of warmth, shun the light, and from the shape of their bodies 

 and legs are able to creep into very narrow spaces. Where 

 it is necessary to exterminate them, crevices, especially in 



^__^ ,_„_ ^^^ warmer parts of kitchens, 



f^~-... . ^-. . -^ --■ ., should be carefully made up; 



'^^, no other remedy has more than 

 '\ a temporary effect. 



The female cockroach lays 

 her eggs in capsules of peculiar 

 form, somewhat like cigar-cases. 

 Each is about half- an -inch 

 Fig.93-Egg-capsuieofcoci<roach, jg^g ^nd a quarter wide; it 



contains sixteen eggs, eight on 

 one side alternating with eight on the other. These capsules 

 are gradually formed, filled with eggs, and completed; the 

 female carries one about for a time sticking out of the hinder 

 end of her body, but at length deposits it in a sheltered place. 

 The young are at first white with black eyes, but darken on 

 exposure to light. After several changes of skin the hinder 

 angles of the mesothorax and metathorax of the male begin 

 to be produced decidedly backwards, and this is an indication 

 that wings are about to appear. There is no resting-stage, 

 and the larva, except for the want of wings, is very like the 

 adult. After a change of skin the insect is for a day or two 

 nearly pure white, and then slowly darkens. In spite of the 

 abundance of the cockroach in our houses, the duration of 

 the stages of growth is not accurately known. They are not 

 easy to rear in captivity. Cockroaches live many together 

 in the same crevices ; the little ones run over the big ones 

 or nestle under them without offence (Sharp). They keep 



J' 



