EUER, DERMATOPTERA. 11 



branches are sinuate even in the basal third, giving the appearance of a slight waist 

 or constriction. The apical part of the forceps is slender, unarmed and gracefully 

 curved to include an eUiptical area. 



In the female the branches are short, slender, straight and simple. 



Kilimandjaro: Kiboscho in the »Bergwiesen», at 3,000—3,700 m. , in the 

 »E'ficme/Za-Formation», in dead flowers of Lohelia deckeni (over 100 specimens). 



Kilimandjaro: Kiboscho, 3,-4,000 m., February 1906, at tlie highest parts of 

 the limits of the Vegetation. (Several hundred specimens.) Also a few under moss, 

 on trees etc., in the very highest parts of she woods which encircle the mountain at 

 3,000 m. Most of the specimens are from the treeless »Bergwiesen». 



Meru: On the highest part of the mountain, about 4,000—4,3000 m., 21.-27. 

 XII. 05, one male of the form macrolahia. 



There are altogether 449 specimens, of which 31 are of the macrolabia form 

 of male, 97 of the typical form of male, 226 females, and 93 immature specimens; 

 there are two males having one branch of the forceps atrophied, thus presenting a 

 superficial appearance of gynandromorphism. 



One pair from Kibonoto, 2,000—3,000 metres; (»Regenwald») is slightly different 

 from the specimens from the higher altitude, but I can find nothing justifying 

 specific rank; they are darker in colour, which may be due to the fact that this pair 

 was received dry and pinncd, wheras the others came in alcohol, the sculpture of the 

 body is a little more marked, and the forceps of the male a trifle straighter, and 

 the head and feet more reddish in colour. This is probably a representative of a 

 local Variation, on the borders of its distribution. 



Of this species, Dr. Sjöstedt writes me: ». . . sie war an den höchsten Teilen 

 des Berges, auf den Bergwiesen, sehr gemein, sowohl imter Steinen als besonders in 

 den grossen, trockenen Blumenständen der Lobelia deckeni. Solche wurden massen- 

 haft abgebrochen und zwischen den Händen über Zeitungen zermalmt, wobei eine 

 Menge Insekten, auch solche Arten, die ich sonst nie sah, gefunden worden. Obgleich 

 diese hochalpine Gegende selbstverständlich an Insekten ziemlich arm sind, konnte 

 ich bei meiner Fahrt von dort 6 — 7,000 Stücke mitbringen». 



In build and appearance, it looks more like a European than an African earwig, 

 as would be expected from its elevated habitat; it appears to be related to F. cetolica 

 and F. caucasica, neither of which, however, are known to me except from their 

 descriptions. 



That a pecuUar species of earwig should be confined to one montain is not by 

 any means remarkable; in Europe, we find the genus Chelidura (sensu antiquo) 

 distributed over the mountain districts, but there is always a distinct species for 

 each group of mountains; thus we have Pseudochelidura analis Rambur, in the Sierra 

 Nevada, Mesochelidura holivari Borm., in the mountains of central Spain, the Sierras 

 of Guadarrama and of Penalara; Pseudochelidura sinuata Germ., and Chelidura pyre- 

 naica Gene., in the eastern and western Pyrenees respectively; Pseudochelidura eden- 

 lula WoLL., in the Island of ^Madeira, with Ps. schmitzzi Borelli; Ps. orsinii Gene., 



