The Structure and Life-history of the Cockroach (Periplaneta orientalis): An Introduction to the Study of Insects — John Shaqi
The Structure and Life-history of the Cockroach (Periplaneta orientalis): An Introduction to the Study of InsectsMiall, L. C. (Louis Compton)
Science
The Structure and Life-history of the Cockroach (Periplaneta orientalis): An Introduction to the Study of Insects
Miall, L. C. (Louis Compton)
Cockroaches
[24] Hummel, loc. cit.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Egg-capsule of _P. orientalis_ (magnified). A,
external view; B, opened; C, end view.]
The larvæ of the Cockroach hardly differ outwardly from the adult,
except in the absence of wings. The tenth tergum is notched in both
sexes, as in the adult female. The sub-anal styles of the male are
developed in the larva.
Cornelius, in his Beiträge zur nähern Kenntniss von Periplaneta
orientalis (1853), gives the following account of the moults of the
Cockroach. The first change of skin occurs immediately after escape
from the egg-capsule, the second four weeks later, the third at the end
of the first year, and each succeeding moult after a year’s interval.
At the sixth moult the insect becomes a pupa,[25] and at the seventh
(being now four years old) it assumes the form of the perfect Insect.
The changes of skin are annual, and like fertilisation and oviposition,
take place in the summer months only. He tells us further that the
ova require about a year for their development. These statements are
partly based upon observation of captive Cockroaches, and are the
only ones accessible; but they require confirmation by independent
observers, especially as they altogether differ from Hummel’s account
of the life-history of _Blatta germanica_, and are at variance with the
popular belief that new generations of the Cockroach are produced with
great rapidity.
[25] The use of the term _pupa_ to denote the last stage before the
complete assumption of wings in the Cockroach, is liable to mislead.
There is no resting-stage at all; wings are developed gradually,
and are nearly as conspicuous in the last larval state as in the
so-called pupa. There seems no reason for speaking of pupæ in this
case.
It is preferable to designate as “nymphs” young and active Insects,
immature sexually, but with mouth-parts like those of the adult. See
Lubbock, Linn. Trans., 1863, and Eaton, Linn. Trans., 1883.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Young nymph (male). × 6.]
The antennæ of the male nymph resemble those of the adult female. Wings
and wing-covers appear first in the later larval stages, but are then
rudimentary, and constitute a mere prolongation of the margins of the
thoracic rings. Cornelius says that the round white spot internal to
the antenna first appears plainly in the pupa, but we have readily
found it in a very young larva. The Insect is active in all its stages,
and is therefore, with other Orthoptera, described as undergoing
“incomplete metamorphosis.” After each moult it is for a few hours
nearly pure white. Of the duration of life in this species we have no
certain information, and there is great difficulty in procuring any.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Older nymph (male) with rudiments of wings.
× 2-1/2.]
_Sexual Differences._
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