LABIDURA IMPARIA. 25 



grass. On one occasion, after fasting for twenty- 

 four hours, a female seized a cinnabar-moth ]arva 

 (Euchelia jacobaeae Linn.) of fair size and commenced 

 eating it at the head. It held the caterpillar with the 

 callipers, and seemed to be purposely stretching it. 

 Sometimes it appeared to experience a difficulty in 

 getting its callipers free. Another female came up, 

 upon which a fight with the callipers commenced 

 between them. They went more or less backwards 

 for the attack, the head, however, being turned a little 

 on one side, so that they might see what they were 

 doing. After a time two females and a nymph were 

 eating at the same larva, but not then holding it with 

 their callipers. Xotwith standing the fact that it was 

 a cinnabar larva- -orange and black- -they ate of it 

 greedily; but another larva of the same species put in 

 with a male and female was not touched, although left 

 with them all night. 



Burr (< Ent. Record,' 1903, p. 262) says of a fine 

 male kept in captivity : " One day I put a large blue- 

 bottle in with him. As I dropped it into the bottle 

 the earwig at once raised his forceps vertically above 

 his back with great swiftness, and seized the blue- 

 bottle as it fell. He gripped it firmly with his forceps, 

 one branch of which entirely penetrated the fly ; then 

 he carried it round the bottle for a short time, probably 



on account of the lie'ht. I w^as very interested to see 





 this use of the forceps, which form a dangerous 



weapon against such small creatures as other insects ; 

 the tips are very sharp. Although the fly fell in upon 

 the earwig from behind, it was seized instantaneously, 

 with o-ood aim, as though he could see it coming 



O O O 



distinctly. I noticed that the Lobidiira generally ate 

 the soft parts of the flies which I gave it, and left the 

 outer shell, with the feet, antenna?, etc." 



On another occasion these earwigs were often 

 noticed cleaning themselves assiduously, and they 

 would sometimes rub their body with their legs, as if 

 they were trying to allay irritation. If a little water 



