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BLATTA (BLABERUS) GIGANTEA.
Plate VII. Fig. 1.
Blatta gigantea.—Linn. Fabr.—Blaberus giganteus, Serville.—Drury's Exotic Insects, vol. ii. Pl. 36, fig. 2.
This is certainly the largest species of this family; the length of the body being frequently about three inches, and the wings when expanded often measuring half a foot from tip to tip. The general colour is a dusky livid; head reddish-brown; antennæ half the length of the body, and of a brown colour. The thorax, which is thin and flat, of comparatively small size, and of a transverse oval shape, has a large quadrate brownish-black spot in the centre. The tegmina, as well as the wings, are livid, the former appearing striated, and having a narrow brown streak on each, extending from the shoulder along the middle. Abdomen brown; the legs reddish-brown.
This species is a native of South America and the West Indian Islands. It has occasionally appeared in this country in the vicinity of harbours and docks, but can no more be regarded as a native than the bird-spider of America (Mygale avicularia), and other foreign visitors, which are sometimes found in such situations. This insect well represents the general form and appearance of the Blattæ, but there is a small section of somewhat dissimilar aspect arising from the back being rather convex, the colours deeper and more varied, with other less obvious differences. As an example of this modification of form, we have figured
