COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 85 



amusing way botli sectional and racial prejudices. In north Germany 

 these roaches are knoAvn as ^^Schwaben," a name which applies to the 

 inhabitants of south Germany, and the latter section '' even up" by call- 

 ing them '^Preussen," after the north Germans. In east German}^ they 

 are called ''Kussen,"and in west Germany "Franzosen," the two latter 

 appellations indicating a certain national antipathy to rival countries 

 as well as a fanciful idea as to origin. Scill other names are " Spanier," 

 dating from the time of Charles Y, and ''Diine," from Denmark. 



DISTRIBUTION AND HISTORY. 



The roaches belong to a very extensive family, the l>lattid?e, com- 

 paratively few of which, fortunately, have become domesticated. In 

 temperate countries some four or five sj^ecies are very common house- 

 hold pests, and a few occur wild in woods; but they are essentially 

 inhabitants of warm countries, and in the Tropics the house species are 

 very numerous, and the wild species occur in great number and variety, 

 many of them being striking in shape, coloration, and size, one species 

 expanding more tlian C inches. The inability of the domestic roaches 

 to withstand unusual cold was illustrated by the fact that the severe 

 weather in the winter of 1894 in Florida, which was so destructive to 

 the citrus groves, on the authority of Mr. H. G. Hubbard, destroyed 

 all the roaches, even those in houses, except a few unusually well pro- 

 tected. Under suitable conditions in the more northern latitude the 

 domestic species often multiply prodigiousl3\ and even in the far north 

 a si^ecies occurs in the huts of the Lai^landers, and sometimes entirely 

 devours the stores of dried fish put away for winter consumption. 



While the domestic species are few in number, nearly a thousand 

 species of Blattidse have been described and preserved in collections, 

 and it is estimated that perhaps upward of 5,000 species occur at the 

 present time in diflterent i)arts of the world. The great majority of the 

 roaches live out of doors, subsisting on living vegetation, and occasion- 

 ally in warm countries are very injurious to cultivated plants. 



The roach is one of the most primitive and ancient insects, in the 

 sense of its early appearance on the globe, fossil remains of roaches 

 occurring in abundance in the early coal formations, ages before the 

 more common forms of insect life of the present day had begun to 

 appear. The species now existing are few in number in comparison 

 with the abundance of forms in the Carbonilerous ago, which might 

 with propriety be called the age of cockroaches, the moisture and 

 warmth of that distant period being alike favorable to plant growth 

 and the multiplication of this family of insects. 



The house roaches of today were undoubtedly very early associated 

 with man in his primitive dwellings, and through the agency of com- 

 merce have followed him wherever navigation has extende I. In fact, 

 on shipboard they are always especially numerous and troublesome, 

 the moisture and heat of the vessels being particularly favorable to 



