LABIA MINOR. 31 



HABITS.- -One of the most striking points in connec- 

 tion with Labia minor is the readiness with which it 

 takes to the wing. In consequence of this it is possible 

 to watch the insect folding and unfolding its wings- 

 a difficult matter in species, which, unlike L. minor, 

 seldom take to flight, at any rate in daylight. On 

 27 April 1897 I captured a male on the wing in 



Kingston-on-Thames. The dav was very hot and 



/ t/ 



sultry, and a thunderstorm occurred about a couple of 

 hours after the capture. As it flew the earwig looked 

 small, and its wings appeared whitish in colour. Con- 

 fined in a small collecting-tube, it appeared to use its 

 callipers to unfold its wings. F. Walker states* that 

 " sometimes when it opens its elytra and prepares to 

 fly, its wings do not readily unfold, and it immediately 

 recurves its abdomen and applies its forceps to them, 

 and then they expand at once as if a spring was 

 loosened. The use of the forceps in folding up the 

 wings was suggested in print many years ago." 

 Staveley in ' British Insects ' mentions that a corre- 

 spondent of the ' Zoologist ' described L. minor, when 

 about to take flight, as turning up its tail and inserting 

 a point of the callipers under first one wing-case and 

 then the other, by this means quickly unfolding the 

 wings. Further, at the meeting of the Entomological 

 Society of London, on 2 Oct. 1865, Weir mentioned 

 that he had observed an example of. L. minor use its 

 anal callipers to unfold its wings. Finally M. Burr 

 told met that a specimen once alighted on the hand of 

 I. Jones of Garth, when he noticed that the callipers 

 were distinctly used to unfold the wings : he did not 

 notice whether they were used to fold them up. 



On the other hand H. Moore, speaking of the opening 

 and closing of the wings in this insect, says : "I 

 watched the operation one evening not once but many 

 times. The wings were shot out rapidly with a jerk. 

 Then as soon as the creature landed on the bottom or 



* ' Entomologist/ 1869, p. 356. 

 f In litt. 14 Xov. 1904. 



