FORFICULA AURICULAIMA. 43 



legs. Shortly before rupture of the egg-membrane 

 the position of the head is easily seen by the black 

 eyes. The young appears to bite through the mem- 

 brane and comes out head first, aiding its emergence 

 with the first pair of legs. As more of the body is 

 freed the other legs in succession push away the egg- 

 membrane, which is not always easily discarded. The 

 newly hatched nymphs are about 4 mm. long. They 

 are active and begin feeding in a few hours, or even 

 less, after leaving the egg-membrane. (H. H. Brindley, 

 ' Proc. Cainb. Philos. Soc.' Feb. 1914.) 



NYMPH. Although the nymph in general appearance 

 resembles rather closely a small imago, closer exami- 

 nation reveals : a more livid colouring ; the absence 

 of wings ; and simple callipers somewhat resembling 

 those of the female, but more slender and propor- 

 tionately longer. The chitinous envelope must be 

 more delicate, for carded specimens, especially the 

 younger ones, collapse entirely as they dry. 



On 2 April 1896 in a rotten tree stump on Esher 

 Common I came across a female with some eggs. The 



earwig:, a few of the eo-crs, and some of the rotten wood, 



i 

 were placed in a small glass-topped box. As mentioned 



in the case above, the earwig carefully collected the 

 eggs and placed them in a heap under the wood. If 

 they were moved, or by the movement of the box 

 were brought into the light, she carried them under 

 cover, carefully lifting them with her jaws. So far 

 the remarks of De Gleer, in his account of the maternal 

 solicitude of the earwig for eggs and young, were 

 confirmed (see below) ; but after the young appeared, 

 which took place in two or three days, she did not 

 appear to me to pay much attention to them, though 

 certainly I did not observe them very frequently. 

 Soon after hatching they were colourless and almost 

 transparent, their heads being large, and their antennse 

 and callipers of inordinate length : the wings and 

 elytra were of course quite wanting. The young soon 

 became darker. Changes of skin occurred, but I 



