50 ORTHOPTERA. 



small size of the latter, it would not otlierwise be able to 

 do securely. The forceps is also an instrument of offence 

 and defence. The earwig has been seen to seize a small 

 beetle with its forceps, and carry it off in spite of its 

 efforts to free itself. Earwigs seldom make use of their 

 wings except at night. 



These insects show remarkable attachment to their 

 eggs and young ones. De Geer noticed a female earwig 

 brooding over a number of eggs with the greatest care, 

 and on another occasion he saw one accompanied by a 

 numerous brood of newly hatched young, which crowded 

 beneath her like chickens under a hen. This fact has 

 since been corroborated by Spence and other entomolo- 

 gists. The young or larvae, are like the perfect insect, 

 except that they have no wings, and the forceps is not 

 well-developed, not having the characteristic curve. 

 They are at first quite of a pale colour, and active, and 

 have the bad character of sometimes devouring the dead 

 body of their mother 



Earwigs are popularly supposed to enter the ears of 

 persons sleeping in the open air, and reaching the brain, 

 causing death. Extremely foolish as the fancy is, it has 

 been so widely-spread as to give a name to this insect in 

 many European languages. Some writers have derived 

 the English name earwig from ear-wing, of which it is 

 thought to be a corruption, in allusion to the shape of 

 the insect's wing, but that this is incorrect is evident 

 from the name in other countries. It is the perce- 

 oreille of the French ; the ohren-JwJder or ohr-wurm, of 

 the Germans ; the or-matk {matk being " a worm,'') of 

 the Swedes. Our word means an eai^ worm, the latter 

 part of the word being from the Anglo-Saxon wigga, 

 " a worm," or '" creeping thing." 



