flowers, but it is not difficult to get rid of them by a little care 

 and attention. In most instances amongst the insect tribes the 

 female dies before her eggs hatch, but the parent Earwig lives 

 to rear her young, and DeGeer says that, like the Hen, she 

 broods over and apparently protects and feeds them. The 

 young can run with alacrity, and resemble their parents, ex- 

 cept in being smaller, paler in colour, and having no wings, 

 and the abdominal appendages divaricate and are not horny. 



The wings of the Earwig are very delicate and pretty, re- 

 sembling in some measure the Haliotis, or Ear-shell ; they are 

 most curiously doubled, so that a small horny portion only 

 projects beyond the elytra : the forceps are employed in fold- 

 ing the wings, (they are therefore not wanted in the larvae or 

 young ones,) and the little tubercles on the back and at the 

 apex of the body probably assist in the operation. 



The Forficulidae found in this country have been divided 

 into 4- genera, and the one before us into 3 species. 



1. auricularia Linn. — Panz. 87. 8. S • — neglecta Mars. ? . 



Male 7 lines long ; ochreous, head rufous, disc of thorax 

 pitchy, abdomen castaneous, forceps much shorter than 

 the abdomen and very much curved (fig. A^). Female 

 a little smaller, forceps nearly straight, attenuated and 

 finely serrated internally, except at the apex, which is 

 curved (A ? ). 

 Common, I believe, everywhere in England and Scotland in 



flowers, under stones, the bark of trees, &c. from April to Nov. 

 Mr. Stephens gives the F. media of Marsham as a variety 



of this species, but from the characters in the Ent. Brit, there 



can be little doubt of its being either the male of Labia minor 



or another species of that genus. 



2. borealis Leach. — Curt. Brit. Ent.pl. 560. S • 



Male 8 or 9 lines long ; ochreous, antennae lurid, except- 

 ing the basal joint, head rufous, eyes black, disc of thorax 

 pitchy, elytra lurid, the apex of the folded wings internally 

 brown : abdomen castaneous, pitchy at the base and apex, 

 forceps nearly as long as the abdomen, moderately curved, 

 stout, castaneous, ochreous at the base, with a strong 

 tooth on the inside of each towards the base, where there 

 are smaller teeth. 

 The specimens I take to be females have the forceps less 

 curved than in F. auricularia. End of June to end of July, 

 Scotland ; hedges, Glanville's Wootton, and in plenty under 

 stones in Isle of Portland and Chesil Bank, Mr. Dale ; Yar- 

 mouth, Mr. Paget. 



3. forcipata Step. I know nothing of this insect, but it is pro- 



bably a variety of the foregoing with longer forceps. 

 The Plant is Teucriwn Scorodonia (Wood Sage or Ger- 

 mander). 



