FORFICULA AUR1CULARIA. 47 



strongly curved. In a garden at Ted dington, Middlesex, 

 I found in April 1908 a male (fig. 3, no. 3) with the left 

 branch of the callipers simple and the right normal of 

 the small rounded type. C. A. Briggs possessed a 

 similar one. In August 1903 H. Donisthorpe took a 

 male at Hyde in which the right branch was simple 

 as in the female.* No doubt it would be quite easy 

 to multiply instances of such aberrations. 



DATE.- -Apparently F. aiiricularia may be found as 

 an imago throughout the year, those surviving after 

 the winter having passed it more or less in a state of 

 hibernation. Many females no doubt survive, as eggs 

 seem to occur only in winter and spring ; whether 

 males survive as frequently it would not be easy to 

 tell. That the latter sex does hibernate is certain, 

 for I have found them more than once under conditions 

 such that they must have done so. On 14 January 

 1906 I met with one in a rotten tree-stump on Esher 

 Common, Surrey. On 25 February 1905 I discovered 

 more than one inside dead and hollow stems of deadly 

 nightshade (Atropa belladonna Linn.) on Ermyn Street, 

 near Leatherhead, Surrey. Nymphs occur so late in 

 the season that it seems difficult sometimes to consider 

 them as coming from winter or spring eggs, though 

 the insect is thought to be only single-brooded ; but 

 this and many other points in connection with even the 

 common earwig need elucidation by entomologists, 

 and H. H. Brindley of Cambridge is working hard to 

 increase our knowledge of this very common insect. 



HABITS.- -What is the natural food of F. auricnlaria? 

 This is an important point; for whether it is to be 

 looked upon as friend or foe depends upon the answer 

 which is to be given to this question. That it often 

 hides amongst the petals of some flowers is common 

 knowledge, and that it damages them is equally certain. 

 This may be due to the nectar at their base being 



* Brindley (' Ent. Mo. Mag.' Mar. 1918) figures an example with one leg of 

 the callipers branched. 



