92 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



colonies early in the eighteenth century, although unknown at the same 

 time in the French Canadian possessions. 1 



It then seemed to be commonly known as the mill beetle. The 

 early Dutch called them Kakerlach, and in the Swede settlements they 



were known as Brodcetare 

 (bread eaters). It is now 

 very common in houses in 

 the East, but is quite gener- 

 ally distributed, and is the 

 common species even so far 

 removed from the Atlantic 

 seaboard as New Mexico. 

 The characteristics of this 

 insect are shown in the 

 accompanying illustration 

 (fig. 41). * 



The German cockroach, 

 Ectobia (Phyllodromia) ger- 

 manica, is particularly 

 abundant in Germany and 

 neighboring European 

 countries, but, like most of 

 the other domestic species, 

 has become world-wide in distribution. In this country it is very often 

 styled the Croton bug, this designation coming from the fact, already 

 alluded to, that attention was first prominently drawn to it at the time 

 of the completion of the Croton system of waterworks in New York 

 City. It had 



Fig. 41. — The oriental roach (Periplaneta orientalis): a, 

 female; b, male; r. side view of female; '/, half-grown 

 specimen — all natural size (original). 



1 i M 



probably been 

 introduced long 

 previously, but 

 the extension of 

 the waterworks 

 system and of 

 piping afforded it 

 means of ingress 

 into residences, 

 and greatly en- 

 couraged its 

 spread and facili- 

 tated its multi- 

 plication. The dampness of water pipes is favorable to it, and it may 

 be carried by the pressure of the water long distances through the 

 pipes without injury. This roach has so multiplied in the eastern 

 United States that it has now become the commonest and best known 



Fig. 42. — The German roach ( Ectobia gcrmanica) : a, first stage ; b, second 

 stage; c, third stage; d, fourth stage; c, adult; /, adult female with egg- 

 case; g, egg-case — enlarged; h, adult with wings spread — all natural size 

 except (j. (From Kiley.) 



See Kalm's Travels, Vol. I, p. 321; II, p, 256. 



