Cornelius. Beiträge zur nähern Kenntniss von Periplaneta orientalis (1853.)
Girard. La domestication des Blattes. Bull. Soc. d’Acclimatisation, 3e Sér., Tom. IV., p. 296 (1877).
Range.
The common Cockroach is native to tropical Asia,[14] and long ago made its way by the old trade-routes to the Mediterranean countries. At the end of the sixteenth century it appears to have got access to England and Holland, and has gradually spread thence to every part of the world.
Perhaps the first mention of this insect in zoological literature occurs in Moufet’s Insectorum Theatrum (1634), where he speaks of the Blattæ as occurring in wine cellars, flour mills, &c., in England. It is hard to determine in all cases of what insects he is speaking, since one of his rude woodcuts of a “Blatta” is plainly Blaps mortisaga; another is, however, recognisable as the female of P. orientalis; a third, more doubtfully, as the male of the same species. He tells how Sir Francis Drake took the ship “Philip,”[15] laden with spices, and found a great multitude of winged Blattæ on board, “which were a little larger, softer, and darker than ours.” Perhaps these belonged to the American species, but the description is obscure. Swammerdam also was acquainted with our Cockroach as an inhabitant of Holland early in the seventeenth century. He speaks of it as “insectum illud Indicum, sub nomine Kakkerlak satis notum,” and very properly distinguishes from it “the species of Scarabæus” (Blaps), which Moufet had taken for a Blatta.[16]
The American Cockroach is native to tropical America, but has now become widely spread by commerce. An Australian species also (P. australasiæ) has begun to extend its native limits, having been observed in Sweden,[17] Belgium, Madeira, the East and West Indies,[18] Florida,[19] &c. In Florida it is said to be the torment of housekeepers.
To the genus Blatta belong a number of small European species, which mostly lurk in woods and thickets. Some of these are found in the south of England. B. lapponica is one of the commonest and most widely distributed. It is smaller than the common Cockroach, and both sexes have long wings and wing-cases. The males are black and the females yellow. It is found on the mountains of Norway and Switzerland as high as shrubs extend, and when sheltered by human dwellings, can endure the extreme cold of the most northern parts of Europe. This is the insect of which Linnæus tells, that in company with Silpha lapponica it has been known to devour in one day the whole stock of dried but unsalted fish of a Lapland village. B. germanica also has the wings and wing-cases well developed in both sexes. Two longitudinal stripes on the pronotum, or first dorsal plate of the thorax, are the readiest mark of this species, which is smaller and lighter in colour than the common Cockroach. It is plentiful in most German towns, and has been introduced from Germany into many other countries;[20] but it appears to be native, not to Germany alone, but to Asia and all parts of central and southern Europe. Where and how it first became domesticated we do not know.
The other species of Cockroaches which have been met with in Europe are Panchlora maderæ, said by Stephens to be occasionally seen in London, and Blabera gigantea the Drummer of the West Indies, which has often been found alive in ships in the London Docks.