290 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
The Maritime Earwig lives near water and frequently enters it, 
swimming about freely and hiding beneath floating objects. One 
remained under water for 65 minutes. It requires a moist habitat 
and dies if kept in a dry place. In walking over wet earth, the 
body is dragged on the side, instead of on the broad ventral sur- 
face. It is nocturnal, but not exclusively so. 
The winter is passed as an adult, rarely in the last nymph stage. 
Eggs are laid chiefly in July and August, only a very few after the 
middle of September, in cavities in the ground scooped out by the 
mouth-parts of the female, usually beneath a log or stone. They 
are laid in batches of from 25 to 90, sometimes as many as four 
batches in the course of the summer. The female mounts guard 
over them until they are hatched, and remains for a few days 
longer; having once left her custody, the young are in danger of 
being devoured by the mother if they venture to return. 
The eggs hatch in about 17 days.^ The young resemble the 
adult, but the legs are spotted and the antennae are proportion- 
ally longer. The young female has ten abdominal terga, the 
adult eight; in the male both adult and immature have ten terga, 
but the forceps of the young resemble those of the female. The 
skin is probably shed four times and is usually eaten. The suc- 
cessive stages show no characteristic differences and the length of 
life is relatively long — one female lived 21 months in captivity. 
The females are usually larger than the males and appear to be 
three or four times as numerous. 
This Earwig is at least partly carnivorous, feeding on dead or 
living insects, crustaceans, fishes, etc., and acting as a scavenger 
on the shore. Both freshly caught and captive individuals 
refused vegetable food when offered. The forceps were used 
defensively when attacked, and offensively in capturing living 
Crickets, sand-fleas, etc., seizing and holding the prey while it was 
eaten. In hunting, the prey was discovered by the antennae, and 
instantly seized in the forceps by throwing the body sideways. 
The forceps were also used in mating, and possibly the difference 
in the shape of those of the male and female is associated with this 
function. 
1 Young 5 to 10 mm. in length were very plentiful at Marblehead Neck, 
Mass., July 23, 1915.— A. P. M. 
