CH. X.] HISTORY OF THE MANTES, ETC. 159 



and saw-shaped on the other. It is, when fresh, 

 white and soft, but, after being exposed to the air, 

 becomes hard and brown. The capsule contains 

 sixteen or eighteen eggs placed in two rows ; the 

 young make their escape through a cleft on the 

 straight side. Their metamorphoses are very sim- 

 ilar to other insects of the orthopterous order. It 

 is not uncommon to find the cast skin of these in- 

 sects lying about the houses which they inhabit in 

 innumerable quantities. 



The idea of the earwig introducing itself into the 

 human ear, and causing madness and death, may be 

 ranked among vulgar errors. If it infested human 

 ears, it is more than probable that it would be often 

 found in the ears of other animals, and yet such is 

 not the fact. The cerumen or waxen secretion in 

 the ear is in itself a sufficient guard against the en- 

 trance of an insect, w^hose natural food is decayed 

 fruit and vegetables. Some years ago, several regi- 

 ments were encamped in the neighbourhood of 

 Winchester, in fields swarming with these insects ; 

 nevertheless, during the whole season, one single in- 

 stance only occurred of the earwig getting into the 

 human ear. The insect fell into the ear of a soldier 

 who was sleeping. The accident caused no incon- 

 venience, and it was speedily killed by pouring oil 

 into the ear, and extracted by syringing the cavity 

 with warm water. 



In most other insects the parent is solicitous only 

 to place the eggs in circumstances most favourable 

 to their protection, after which she seems to forget 

 even the spot to which her offspring have been com- 

 mitted. But, among earwigs, on the contrary, the 

 eggs are hatched and the young ones fostered by the 

 parent. M. Degeer relates, that at the beginning of 

 the month of June, he found under a stone a female 

 earwig, surrounded by a number of young offspring, 

 which were evidently her own. He put them all 

 into a box of fresh earth ; they did not enter the 



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