Earwigs. 



7'i 



wini^s closed tliese Insects are a little more than an inch in Icni^th ; and they cluster 

 round the narrow leaves with the tips of the closed wings touching the leaf and the 

 head slightly awav from it. In this position the group presents much the appearance 

 of a branch of broom in liower. 



Earwigs. 



One of our familiar jM-o\'erbs has it that if \-ou give a dog a bad name you nn'ght 

 just as well hang him off-hand : vou have killed him morally though not physically. 

 The truth of the proverb is exemplified by the case of the earwig.^^ Our forefathers 



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called it bv this name, which signi- 

 fies something which runs into the 

 ear, probablv because one mistaken 

 individual had been caught in the 

 act of investigating the ear of a 

 human sleeper to see if there was 

 room to shelter it. The consequence 

 is that in the ages that have passed 

 since that incident the compara- 

 tivelv harmless earwig has been 

 avoided with something approach- 

 ing to loathing, as an enemy that 

 would steal through the ear and eat 

 up the small amount of brain that 

 is possessed by the person enter- 

 taining such a fear. As a further 

 consequence there are few persons 

 who know how interesting a crea- 

 ture the earwig is. 



As Insects the earwigs are of 

 rather simple organization, and 

 belong to the straight-winged 

 order. ^ They are long, slender- 

 bodii'd creatures that remind one 

 of a lad in an Eton-jacket, for their 

 wing-covers do not extend o\-er 

 half of the hind-body, and can onU' 

 act as efficient covers by the expan- 

 sive and delicate wings being carefully folded in a complex manner that is peculiar 

 to these Insects. One could almost imagine that the difficulty of folding these 

 wings in the right wav, to make them pack comfortably under the wing-covers, 

 explains whv tlu' wings art" so seldom used. As a matter of fact, earwigs have got 

 so much into tlu' habit of rching upon their lcg> for locomotion, instead of using their 

 wings, that in many spt'cies disuse of thrm has resulted in the wings remaining 

 undeveloped. As compared with most otlin Insv^ct families the earwigs are few in 

 number ; yet over four hundred species are kntjwn, and of these we can claim live as 



1 Forficula auriciilaria - Orthoptera. 



I'holo hy] .11- />■'>'"'. 



Spotted Frog-Hoi'fkr. 

 One section of the frog-hoppers, instead of having the wings in variable shades 

 of brown and grev, are rather strikingly colouRd. The present species is a 

 native form whose blue-black ground colour is blotched with brilliant scarlet. 



