194 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Orthoptera can be easily preserved in strong alcohol, and can 

 afterwards be taken out and pinned and set at leisure. They can 

 be killed with ether or benzine, as coleoptera, without losing their 

 colors, as they would do, after remaining long in alcohol. They 

 should be pinned through a little triangular spot between the bases of 

 the elytra or fore wings, when the wings can be spread to advan- 

 age. They are also often pinned through the prothorax, or through 

 the right elytia, -as in coleoptera. In pinning these insects for 

 transportation, care should be taken to put in additional pins on 

 each side of the abdomen, and in like manner to steady the hind 

 legs, which are very apt to fall off if too much jarred. 



The different sounds produced by Orthoptera should be carefully 

 studied ; every species can be distinguished by its peculiar note, 

 and as in difierent families the musical apparatus varies, so each 

 family has a characteristic chirrup, or shrilling, or harsh, grating, 

 rasping noise. 



Forficulidae, Earwigs. Narrow, flattened insects, very unlike 

 other Orthoptera^ with short wing covers, like the Staphylinids 

 among beetles ; terminal ring armed with a pair of very long 

 incurved forceps-like horny pieces ; nocturnal insects, hiding in 

 the daytime between leaves and in flowers, flying about at dark. 

 They feed on the corollas of flowers and on fruit ; they will eat bread 

 and meat, &c., and are very troublesome in Europe. Our species 

 has not yet been found in Maine, though inhabiting other parts of 

 New England. An Alpine species lives under stones in Europe. 



Blattariae, Cockroaches. Also nocturnal, hiding by day, or as 

 in the wild species, under stones, &c. They are fond of heat. 

 While troublesome from eating garments, &c., they do great ser- 

 vice in clearing houses and vessels of bed-bugs, which they prey 

 upon. We have several species in New England which should be 

 carefully sought after. They are found under stones, and are 

 smaller than the house cockroach. They are oval, the head round- 

 ed and partially concealed, with long antennae. The fore wings 

 are thickened, the anal stylets short. Color almost invariably a 

 reddish brown. The eggs are laid in large bean-shaped capsules, 

 which are divided into two apartments, each containing a row of 

 separate chambers, about thirty in number, and each enclosing an 

 BgQ. Many days are required for oviposition. An English writer 

 ^ has stated that in Blafta and a species of Phaama the larva and pupa 

 state are undergone before leaving the eggs, so tlmt the changes 



