148 



[July, 



FORFICULA LESNEI, Finot, A BRITISH INSECT. 

 BY MALCOLM BTJRE, F.ZS. 



In the Ent. Mo. Mag., 2nd series, vol. vii, p. 230 (l^QQ) , Forficula 

 pubescens. Gene, is recorded as having been taken at the Warren, 

 Folkestone; the same specimen is figured m pubescens in British 

 Orthoptera, pi. 1, fig. G (Naturalist's Journal, Suppl., March, 1897). 

 M. de Bormans, after attentively examining the figure, has called my 

 attention to another recently described species, J''. Lesnei, Finot, which 

 is very closely allied, and suggested that the earwig in question is 

 really to be referred to the latter. I have again examined the insect, 

 and compared it with the description of Finot, and his figures of this, 

 pubescens, Gene, and decipiens, Gene, and think that it is a true Lesnei. 

 But there is no reason ihaX pubescens should be yet struck off the list 

 of our British species, as it is possible that the earlier records of its 

 capture refer to true pubesce7is ; and Mr. Eland Shaw's words in his 

 Synopsis (Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xxv, p. 358, 1889), that the legs of the 

 forceps are "almost contiguous for their whole length," seem to point 

 to pubescens. 



Lesnei chiefly differs from pubescens in the shape of the forceps, 





and the distinction between these two species and decipiens may be 

 seen by the accompanying figures, which M. de Bormans has been 

 kind enough to send me. 



F. pubescens is peculiar to the South of Europe, and is not a 

 species that is likely to be imported in shipping. F. Lesnei has been 

 found in grass and rough herbage in September at Trouville, Calvados 

 and Villers-sur-Mer by M. Lesne, and at St. Germain, near Paris (de 

 Bormans in Hit.). 



In pubescens the dilated part of the male forceps is considerably 

 longer than in Lesnei, and in Lesnei than in decipiens, and at the apex 



