CHAPTER VI. 



COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 



By C. L. Maklatt. 



COCKROACHES. 



( Perijplaneta americana et al.) 



Roaches are among- the commonest and most offensive of the insects 

 which frequent human habitations. They were well known to the 

 ancients, who called them lucifuga, from their habit of always shunning 

 the light. The common English name for them, or, more properly, for 

 the common domestic English species, is "black beetle." In America 

 this name has not been adopted to any extent for this insect, which was 



Fig„ 38. — The American roach (Periplaneta americana): a, view from above; b. from beneath — both 



enlarged one-third (original). 



early introduced here, and the term "roach," or "cockroach," is the 

 common appellation of all the domestic species. The little German 

 roach, however, is very generally known as the Oroton bug, from its 

 early association with the Croton waterworks system in New York City. 

 The popular designations of this insect in Germany illustrate in an 

 84 



