Live Stock. 



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tAPRiL 1907. 



of an immense number of short annular segments, and two large eyes just projecting 

 in front of the rounded shield of the front of the thorax, which is turned downward 

 and hidden from above, while the stout spiny legs well adapted for running project 

 on the sides. Those possessing wings, however, are usually more elongate in form ; 

 the stout, oval, flattened fore-wings or elytra, traversed with a network of simple 

 but stout nervures, are laid flat over the flying fan-shaped hind wings which rest in 

 a double fold on the back. The female has a very curious habit of producing her 

 eggs in a horny capsule, which she often carries about with her for some days 

 projecting from the tip of the abdomen, before she deposits it in some suitable crevice 

 in the floor or wall in the house or attached to a twig, or under a log in the forest. 

 The baby cockroaches are pale-coloured little creatures that undergo a number of 

 moults, and, compared with other insects, take a long time to reach the adult state, 

 when from the final moult emerges the perfect insect. Even in the warmer climates 

 Marlatt considers that they only produce one generation in a year, and says, " The 

 abundance of roaches is therefore apparently not accounted for so much by their 

 rapidity of multiplication as by their unusual ability to preserve themselves from 

 ordinary means of destruction, and by the scarcity of natural enemies." In Australia 

 the chief enemies of the cockroach are the parasitic wasps belonging to the family 

 Evaniidae, which deposit their eggs in the egg-capsules of the cockroach, the typical 

 black Evania princeps being furnished with a short spine-like ovipositor admirably 

 adapted for puncturing the leathery egg-case. This curious hatchet-bodied wasp in 

 consequence is often found inside the house in Sydney resting on the window-frames, 

 after it has emerged from the capsule in which it has been introduced into the house. 



Besides the habit of the cockroaches in running over and devouring stored 

 food, most species have a very objectionable roachy smell, which, when numerous, 

 can be often detected on the food they have passed over. Several large wingless 

 bush species in Australia have the glands containing thin foetid liquid very much 

 developed, and, when disturbed, will stand with the tip of the abdomen turned up, 

 and discharge the fluid which has such a vile smell, that they seem to know they 

 have no need to run away when armed with a regular Chinese stink-pot, which 

 renders them quite safe from the attacks of predaceous insects or hungry birds. 



Besides living in the house, cockroaches are very fond of the warm close 

 atmosphere on shipboard, and though they are still numerous on ships at times, 

 it was in the old days of wooden sailing ships that these insects had a good time, 

 and the little tenders and river-boats along the northern coast of Queensland used 

 to be alive with these pests. The old sailors' story about the cockroaches nibbling 

 their toe-nails, so that they never required cutting, seems to be quite borne out 

 by facts, while it reflects credit on the insect's digestive powers. A traveller in 

 South America, Mr. Herbert H. Smith (quoted by Marlatt), says : "At Corumba, 

 on the upper Paraguay, I came across the cockroaches in a new role. In the house 

 where we were staying there were nearly a dozen children, and every one of them 

 had their eye-lashes more or less eaten off by cockroaches, a large brown species, 

 one of the commonest kinds throughout Brazil. The eyelashes were bitten off 

 irregularly, in some places quite close to the lid. Like most Brazilians, these 

 children had very long black eyelashes, and their appearance thus defaced was 

 odd enough. The trouble was confined to the children, I suppose because they 

 are heavy sleepers, and do not disturb the insects at work." Though, as a general 

 rule, these insects have a great distaste to light, and rush off to hide the moment 

 a light is struck, I have, in North Queensland, often seen the walls of country 

 stores and publichouses so thickly covered with a small brown species (common 

 all over the north) that at night time one could hardly put his finger upon the 

 wall without touching one, and the dim light of the kerosene lamp did not appear 

 to interfere with them in the least. 



