Order ORTHOPTERA. 



Sub-order I. FORFICULODEA. 



(Earwigs.) 



Dermaptera* LEACH Edin. Encycl. ix 1815. 



ForficulidsR STEPH. Cat. Brit. Ins. Vol. I, p. 299 .... 1829. 



STEPH. Illustr. Brit. Ent. Yol. VI, p. 3 . . . 1837. 



Forficulina NEWM. Ent. Mag. Walker. Vol. 2, p. 424 . . . 1834. 



Dermatoptera BURM. Handb. Ent, Vol. 2, p. 743 .. . 1838. 



Euplexoptera WESTW. Zool. Journal, No. xix .... 1831. 



Euplexoptera WESTW. Introd. Class. Ins. Vol. 1, p. 398 . . 1839. 



Forficularia BRUNNER Prodr. Eur. Orth. p. 1 ... 1882. 



Forficulodea BOLIVAR Rev. Biol. N~ord. Fr. Vol. 5, p. 477 . . 1893. 



(Other names, which have been occasionally used, it is unnecessary 



to quote.) 



Due perhaps to the fact that in themselves the 

 Earwigs form a well -defined natural group, there has 

 been some considerable difference of opinion amongst 

 entomologists with regard to their relationship to 

 other insects. Many species in general appearance 

 are very like beetles, and Burr speaks of Labia minor 

 as flying with and mimicking certain Brachelytra.f 

 We are not therefore surprised to find that Linnaeus 

 classed them with the Coleoptera. Some systenmtists 

 consider that they should constitute a natural Order in 

 themselves- -Dermaptera, Dermatoptera, Euplexoptera. 

 More usually, however, they have been placed with 

 the Orthoptera, and that arrangement seems to be 

 the more generally accepted at the present time, and 

 withal the more reasonable also. Sharp considers 

 the only special structural characteristics to be " the 

 peculiar form of the tegmina and hind- wings, the 

 imbrication of the segments, and the forceps terminat- 

 ing the body."J 



Apparently the geologic history of these insects 

 does not certainly extend back beyond Tertiary times. 



De Geer had already proposed this term for the whole of the Orthoptera. 

 'Mem. pour serv. a 1'Hist. d'Ins.' I, Orth. vol. iii, 1773. 

 t ' Ent, Rec.' xi, No. 2, 1S99. 

 t ' Camb. Nat. Hist.' vol. v, p. 216. 



