1 62 Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, and Crickets 



The semi-parasitic life which they lead has resulted in such a change of 

 habits that their body is modified very far from the normal cricket type. 

 The commonest species is Myrmecophila nebrascensis, about y 1 ^ inch long, 

 shown in Fig. 232. 



Formerly included in the order Orthoptera, the earwigs are now recog- 

 nized as entitled to distinct ordinal rank, and the thirty or more genera in 

 the world, of which but six occur in the United States, 

 are held to constitute the order Euplexoptera. This 

 order is closely related to the Orthoptera, although the 

 insects themselves look more like beetles. 



The earwigs are small, brownish or blackish insects, 

 readily recognized by the curious forceps-like appendages 

 on the tip of the abdomen (Fig. 233). They are either 

 winged or wingless, but when winged have small leath- 

 ery wing-covers only extending about half-way to the 



tip of the abdomen, with the well-developed nearly 

 FIG. 232. Myrme- . . * . , . , , , , , , , , 



cophila nebrascensis, a hemispherical wings compactly folded, both longitudi- 



degenerate cricket na lly a nd transversely, underneath them. Earwigs are 

 that inhabits ants' f . , ,, , . . . . 



nests. (Five times not " en seen because they are nocturnal in habit, 



natural size.) but in some places they are rather abundant. They 



are vegetable feeders, being especially fond of ripe fruit, flower corollas, etc., 

 which they bite off and chew with the well-developed jaws and maxillae. 

 The female lays her small, yellowish oval eggs in 

 small masses under fallen leaves or in other con- 

 cealed places, and is said to nestle on them as a 

 hen oh her eggs. She is also said to protect the 

 young for some time after they are hatched. The 

 young undergo an incomplete metamorphosis, de- 

 veloping wings externally, and resembling the 

 parents, except in size, from the time of their 

 hatching. FlG> 233- _ An earwig, 



The commonest representative of the order in the Labia minor. (Six times 

 northern and eastern states is the little earwig, natural size -) 

 Labia minor (Fig. 233), measuring to tip of forceps only about \ inch. 

 Other American species, as Labidura riparia, a Florida species, brownish 

 yellow with a pair of longitudinal black stripes on prothorax and wing- 

 covers, with long slender forceps, and Anisolabis annulipes, a black wingless 

 California species with short heavy forceps, are larger, these two species 

 being a little more and a little less than f inch respectively. 



