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INJURIOUS INSECTS.— THE Ex\RWIG, 

 (FOBFICULA AURICULAEIA.)—No. 1. 



BY J. MC' INTOSH, ESQ. 



The genus Forficula, (Vulgo Earwig,) belong to the order Orthoptera. Our 

 present subject is too well known to require any minute description, and is 

 too generally an object of unconquerable dislike, from the absurd idea of its 

 ins'nuating itself into persons' ears. Of this idea the populace of most countries 

 are alike persuaded, and it is astonishing to find even the great legislator of 

 Natural History perpetuating the same error. In consequence of this notion 

 a general proscription is extended against this race of insects throughout the 

 whole civilized world, though I believe unsupported by a single fact. They are, 

 however, wholesale destroyers of peaches, apricots, plums, and other fruits, with 

 a catalogue of flowers too numerous to mention; and if they congregated like 

 ants they would destroy everything of this sort. They make their way to 

 the foot-stalk of the fruit, get to the stone, etc., and live there day and 

 night; and when you open a fine and delicious fruit, with the full intention 

 of having a nice mouthful, you find to your horror and disappointment that 

 it is already in possession of two or three Earwigs, and by them half consumed. 

 So it is with the petals of some choice flower on which our fondest hopes have 

 been set. The rapidity with which they devour the petals of flowers is re- 

 markable; they clasp the edge of the petal in their fore-legs, and then, 

 stretching out the head as far as possible, bite out a mouthful, and so on, 

 till the head is brought to the fore-legs, just the same as leaf-feeding 

 caterpillars do. When the breeding-time has arrived, the female retires to 

 some sheltered place, as the cracks in the bark of old trees, walls, etc. Here 

 she lays her eggs, to the number of twenty-five or thirty. When she has 

 done laying, she sits upon them in the same manner that a hen sits upon 

 her eggs, till they are hatched, and with as much care and fondness. If 

 the eggs or the young after they are hatched are disturbed, she will immedi- 

 ately collect them together till they are old enough to find food for them- 

 selves. How the young at this stage are fed, or with what sort of food, 

 I am not able to state, nor have I met with any writer who is; therefore 

 any information on this point will be greatly esteemed. 



Although vegetable substances form the principal diet of the adult Earwigs, 

 De Geer asserts that they are not only carnivorous, but cannibals. We have 

 tried several experiments to ascertain the truth of this remark, and we have 

 always found them devour vegetable food when it could be procured, but 

 when this was withheld they would devour flies, and even one another. It 

 may therefore be inferred that Earwigs in some degree make up for their 

 ravages on vegetable life by destroying other insects, though their nocturnal 

 habits render it somewhat difficult to ascertain the truth of this. 



A remarkable fact in relation to this insect is its great abundance in par- 



