Introduction

Abstract

Forty-seven species are included in the genus Periplaneta (Princis, 1966, 1971), none of which is endemic to America. The four species found in the United States, P. americana (Linnaeus), P. australasiae (Fabricius), P. brunnea (Burmeister) and P. fuliginosa (Serville) have all been introduced from foreign lands. Periplaneta americana originated in tropical Africa where it lives both inside and outside human dwellings. According to Rehn (1945), this species travelled to South America, the West Indies, and the southern United States on slave ships sailing from the west coast of Africa. This theory was tarnished, however, when Kevan, personal communication (1979) identified an oötheca found on the Spanish vessel San Antonio, sunk off Bermuda in 1625 (Peterson, 1977), as P. americana. Kevan believes that the species ‘. . . was certainly in the Americas before the slave trade reached large proportions, and . . . it was on vessels that were not slavers by the beginning of the 17th century.’ The specific name americana is misleading because of the insect’s African origin, and the generic name, which means to wander around, would have been more appropriate for this species because not all of the Periplaneta species are world travellers.