80 Circular N 0. 15. _
under stones or loose bark, and rarely come about houses. They T I
are all active, running insects, belonging to the same insect order
as the cricket and grasshopper, tho to a different family.
. The roach is an ancient type of insect which seems to have
T flourished during certain warm, moist periods of geological
times, of which fact we have evidence in very well preserved fos-
T sil wings and other parts of their bodies. The group cannot be
considered decadent yet, if we may judge from the statements
’ of travelers in tropical countries. Reaches are often so numer-
i ous there as to become a veritable scourge. even attacking sleep- i
· _ ing children and gnawing off their eyelashes, while foods of all
V sorts are literally devoured by the hosts of pests that come forth
_ at night and run riot among provisions in storehouses and pan-
tries. The accounts of their depredations on shipboard, par-
ticularly in olden times when man seemed to be complet.ely help-
less in dealing with them, are most shocking. Food is not
p` merely devoured but that remaining is so covered with filth as
to be nnht for human food.
T The Groton-bug (1’lt_nllc(Iro»n./ia gcrman4jca).——The smallest
and most commonly troublesome roach in Kentucky households
I is a small brown insect, both sexes provided with well developed
· wings which are longer than the body a11d lie tlat on the back.
_ t)n the shield—shaped piece just behind the head are two parallel
j black marks. The length to the tips of the folded wings is about
0.56 inch. This roach is supposed to have been brought here
from Europe; at any rate it is not a native of this country.
'l`he fact that it is completely adapted to life in dwellings indi-
cates that it is an old associate of man and probably originated
where he did—in lndia or some other section of Southern Asia.
While all of the 'roachcs are more or less noetural in habit,
this one is often seen roaming about in the daytime, and some-
times helps itself before our eyes to food on tables of hotels and
restaurants. The name Croton—bug appears to have been ap-
plied to it when the Groton atpteduct of New York was com-
pleted and the insect began to attract attention from its abun-
dance about water pipes. It is now scattered thruout the
-·onntry. but does not thrive in some households, while in othGT‘F¤