FORFICULA. EARWIG, 
Generic Character. 
Antennce setacesc. 
Elytra dimidiata. Al(e 
tecta', 
Cauda forcipata. 
Antcnnte setaceous. 
JF ing - Sheaths halved , 
Wings covered. 
Tail forcipated. 
Xhis is not a niimerotis genus. The Forjicula 
auricularia or comnion Earwig is an insect so 
familiarly known that a formal description might 
seem unnecessary : its structure however is highly 
curious, and its natural history well worthy of 
particular observation: the wings of this insect 
are remarkably elegant, and are convoluted 
beneath their small sheaths in so curious a man- 
ner that they cannot be viewed without admira- 
tion; they are very large in proportion to the 
animal, transparent, and slightly iridescent. The 
earwig flies oidy by night, and it is not without 
great difficulty that it can be made to expand its 
wings by day: it is even probable that they would 
receive injury by any long exposure to the diurnal 
air 5 the animal therefore keeps them completely 
covered; and indeed so unusual a circumstance is 
it to see them expanded, that Sir Thomas Brown, 
in his Fseudodoxia Epidemicay has thought it neces- 
