80 Natural History of the Earwig, 



there are many other vegetable substances which serve them 

 for food. The florist often has to regret the loss or laceration 

 of some of his favourites : they eat the epidermis of stalks and 

 leaves, sometimes the petals and stamina of the flower, and oc- 

 casionally devour young plants, as those of the French marigold 

 (tagetus patula), and others. 



Throughout the summer and autumn they continue to in- 

 crease in size, and in the latter season become unwieldy, and 

 cease using their wings. The abdomen becomes much enlarged, 

 from which circumstance they all appear to be females ; this 

 cannot, however, be ascertained, as there are no visible sexual 

 marks in any stage of their existence ; but from the habitudes 

 of other genera in this class of insects, it is probable the males 

 die soon after the purposes of their life is completed ; and as 

 we see the full grown ones skulking about the places where the 

 young are resuscitated in the spring, it is likely the eggs are 

 laid in the course of the autumn, and pass the maggot and 

 chrysalis states during the winter. 



From the weapon-like appendices at the end of the abdomen, 

 they appear to be intended for offence, and though used for the 

 purpose of defence, this is not the sole use of those threatening 

 instruments, but they are the organs, without which, they could 

 neither fold nor unfold their wings. When these are unfolded 

 for flight, they are at least half an inch in length, and when 

 folded lie under the protection of a shell not one-fifth of this 

 length I The membranous and transparent wing has no ten- 

 dinous or muscular motion in itself, but by the assistance and 

 form of the forceps, they are quickly folded, like a large map 

 in an octavo volume, with the greatest adroitness. Such pro- 

 vision has nature made for the disposal of appendages so neces- 

 sary to the animal at one time, and for the defence of the same 

 at another, when the pioneering habits of the insect endangers 

 the safety of those delicate organs. Another circumstance in 

 the structure of this loathed insect deserves remark ; its safety 

 depends on its power of secreting itself from its natural enemies, 

 by creeping into sinuous holes and cavities ; but this it could 

 not do without such flexuosity of body, as its short shells allows ; 

 for if it had shells or elytra, covering the whole length of the 



