80 



EARWIGS. 



brought to bear, it would be best to cut off and hum the infested 

 branches, or to destroy and burn the infested bushes if it 

 could be done without serious loss, and thus stamp out this 

 newly-observed pest in good time. 



EAEWIGS. 



Common Earwig. Forjmda auricularia, Linn. 



1, FoEFicuLA AUKicuLAEiA ; 2, F. FORciPATA * ; 3, wiug of F. auricuIarla. 

 All magnitied. 



Earwigs cannot be placed under any one special horticul- 

 tural heading as being injurious to any one kind of orchard 

 or bush fruit crop in particular, and the amount of damage 

 which they cause to fruit is less in proportion than that of 

 their injuries to garden plants and flowers, as, for instance, 

 to Carnations, Dahlias, &c. ; or occasionally in years of great 

 prevalence, as in 1886, to some field crops. Still they are 

 visitations which occasionally appear in vast numbers, and 

 which certainly include various of our orchard and more 

 tender garden fruits in their depredations. 



So far back as 1837 it was noted as follows in German 

 observations by Kollar of the Common Earwig, the F. auricu- 

 laria: — " In orchards it particularly injures the fruit of trees 

 which are trained as espaliers, such as Peaches and Apricots, 



* The figure of F. forcipata is copied from that by Prof. J. 0. Westwood 

 pi. xxviii., vol. vi. of Stephens's 'Illustrations of British Entomology' ; but I 

 understand that doubt has arisen whether it is a distinct species. Further on 

 will be found descriptions of two variations in shape of the forceps of the male 

 F. auricularia. 



