102 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



incubation of birds, though we have the hig^i authority 

 of Fabricius, that " insects never sit upon their eggs*." 

 Upon the incontestable statements of two dis- 

 tinguished observers of insects, Frisch f and De 

 Geer, the female of the common earwig (Forjicula 

 aunci/laria, Linn.) sits upon her eggs. This 

 circumstance, however, seems to have escaped the 

 notice of other naturalists, though her attentions to 

 her young ones is often witnessed. De Geer disco- 

 vered a female earwig in the beginning of April 

 under some stones, and brooding over a number of 

 eggs, of whose safety she appeared to be not a little 

 jealous. In order to study her proceedings the better, 

 he placed her in a nurse-box filled with fresh earth, 

 and scattered the eggs in it at random. She was not 

 long, however, in collecting them with all care into 

 one spot, carrying them one by one in her mandibles, 

 and placing herself over them. She never left them 

 for a moment, sitting as assiduously as a bird does 

 while hatching. In about five or six weeks the grubs 

 were hatched, and were then of a whitish colour |. 

 At another time, in the beginning of June, De 

 Geer found under a stone a female earwig accompa- 

 nied with a numerous brood of young, to all appear- 

 ance newly hatched, and nestling under their mother 

 like chickens under a hen. These he likewise placed 

 in a nurse-box with fresh earth; but instead of burrow- 

 ing into the mould, as he had expected, they crowded 

 under the bosom and between the legs of their mo- 

 ther, who remained quiet and evidently pleased, suf- 

 fering them to continue there for an hour or more at 

 a time. He fed both this brood and the one first 

 mentioned with bits of ripe ix\)^)\e ; and perceived that 



* Fabricius, Philosoph. Erilomol. Ixxvi. 

 t liisecten in Deutschland, 4to. 1766. 

 I De Geer, Mem., vol. iii. p. 518. 



