128 Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, and Crickets 
its range north from its native region in Mexico and Central America. The 
Australian roach, Periplaneta australasia, resembles P. americana , but is 
darker in ground color, a quarter of an inch shorter, and has a conspicuous 
yellow submarginal band running around the shield-shaped pronotum. 
Each fore wing has also a strong yellow tapering bar in the basal part of 
the costal region. It came originally from the Australian Pacific region, 
and is now spread widely over the world, being common in this country 
in Florida and other southern states. The most abundant and destruc¬ 
tive house-roach in the eastern states is the small German cockroach, 
Ectobia germanica (Fig. 158), about half an inch long, and pale yellowish 
brownish with a pair of distinct black longitudinal stripes on the pro- 
Fig. 158. Fig. 159. Fig. 160. 
Fig. 158. —The croton-bug, or German cockroach, Ectobia germanica. (Twice natural 
size.) 
Fig. 159. —The black beetle, or Oriental cockroach, Periplaneta orientalis. (One and 
one-half times natural size.) 
Fig. 160. —The common wood cockroach, Ischnoptera pennsylvanica. (After Lugger; 
natural size indicated by line.) 
notum. This roach is often called croton-bug, from its intimate asso¬ 
ciation with the pipes of New York City’s Croton-water system. It is an 
importation from Europe, where it is especially abundant in Germany. Its 
real nativity is unknown, but it is now of world-wide distribution. The 
fourth species is the black or Asiatic roach, or black beetle, as it is sometimes 
called, Periplaneta orientalis (Fig. 159). This roach is about one inch 
long, with brownish-black body; in the female the wings are rudimentary, 
and in the male the wings when folded do not quite reach the tip of the 
abdomen. This species is common in all the eastern and Mississippi 
Valley states and extends as far west as the great plains. It is the 
commonest cockroach in England and Europe. The native outdoor species 
most familiar in this country is the common wood-cockroach, Ischnoptera 
