42 SUBORDER I. DERMAPTORIA. 



Suborder I. DERMAPTORIA. 



(DERMAPTERA. EUPLEXOPTERA.) 



This suborder is represented in the United States by the single 

 family Forficnlidae, which comprises those Orthopterous insects 

 commonly known as "earwigs." They form a very compact and 

 easily recognized group, though their relationship to other insects 

 is somewhat difficult to ascertain. That they existed as far back 

 as Mesozoic time is proven by their remains which have been 

 found in the European rocks of that age, while in this country 20 

 or more fossil forms have been described by Scudder from the 

 Tertiary formations of Cenozoic time, mainly from the famous 

 Florissant Basin in South Park, Colorado. The first of the pres- 

 ent living species described were placed by their author, Linnaeus, 

 in the genus Forficula and assigned to the order Coleoptera. They 

 were later shifted about from one order to another under the 

 names Forficula, Forficulariae, etc., until 1831, when Latreille 

 separated them from the other Orthoptera under the name Der- 

 maptera, a name meaning "skin" -|- "wing" and already used by 

 DeGeer in 1773 for the entire group of Orthoptera. Other names 

 since proposed for them have been Dermaptoptera by Burmeister 

 and Euplexoptera by Westwood, both in 1839. By most Amer- 

 ican authors they have been hitherto regarded as a separate order 

 under either the name Dermaptera or Euplexoptera. I prefer to 

 treat them as a suborder of Orthoptera, coordinate with Cursoria, 

 Gressoria, etc. 



Family I. FOEFICULID.E. 8 



THE EARWIGS. 



The living species of earwigs range in length from 2.5 to 37 

 mm., and have the body narrow and flat, the thorax and abdomen 

 broadly connected ; head short, more or less heart-shaped and hor- 

 izontal; mandibles strong; antenna 1 10- to 35-jointed, the second 

 joint always very small; thorax short, often slightly narrower 

 than the head and in our species usually almost square. The teg- 

 mina or wing covers are leathery or horny in texture, meet in a 



s Burr (1911, 6) treats the earwigs of the world as a separate order, Dermaptera, 

 and recognizes three suborders, Arixenina, Hemimerina and Forficulina, the latter, 

 only, being represented in this country. I consider these as families of the suborder 

 Dermaptoria. He characterizes his suborder Forficulina, the equivalent of our fam- 

 ily Forficulidas, very briefly as follows: 



"(viparous; eyes well developed; mandibles normal; fully winged _ or apterous; 

 cerci modified into strongly chitinized horny forceps; inner lobe of maxilla with four 

 apical teeth; not parasitic." 



