PftOLABIA ARACHIDIS. 37 



depth. The callipers are sometimes quite dark, 

 especially at the tip ; but, what is more important, the 

 tooth towards the tip may be very small or quite 

 absent. The dark band at the base of the femora, 

 which seems to be constant in the nymph, appears 

 sometimes in the imago. P. arachidis is a delicate 

 insect, which is seldom captured with its antennas 

 intact ; the callipers too are sometimes broken. 



DATE. As P % araclndis occurs in this country only 

 under artificial conditions, imagines are probably 

 always to be found, and it is quite likely that breeding 

 is continuous. I received a number of nymphs and 

 imagines captured on 16 Oct. 1917, at Acton Bridge: 

 some of the nymphs were quite small. 



HAP, ITS, ETC.- -M. Yersin, who first described P. 

 arachidis, says :--" Cette Forficule a ete trouvee dans 

 le mois d'Octobre [1859] a Marseille, par M. Raymond, 

 qui 1'a prise sur les quais au milieu d'un chargement 

 d'Arachides." In 1897 Commander J. J. Walker 

 discovered it at the Sheppy Glue and Chemical works 

 at Queenborough, and exhibited it at the meeting of 

 the Entomological Society of London on 5 May 1897. 

 In April of the next year he found them just as 

 abundant. After a visit in August 1904 he sent me 

 examples which were somewhat imperfect as regards 

 antenna3, and said : " It is almost impossible to catch 

 the creature without breaking these organs." On 

 17 Sept. 1906 they were less common. In 1909 

 Walker found P. arachidis at Queenborough, not only 

 indoors (though more frequently there), but also in the 

 open amongst old sacks. As, however, these sacks 

 were to some extent decomposing, there was perhaps a 

 temperature above the normal, just as there would be 

 in a manure-heap. At the end of March 1900 E. C. 

 Bedwell found this earwig while searching for beetles 

 amongst a store of bones in some soap-works at Bow. 

 In April 1916 H. Moore received alive several 

 examples (the majority being nymphs), taken in a 

 City warehouse in bales of rush-baskets from Japan. 



