156 THE entomologist's record. 



elusion. This last author's work has all the virtues, all the views, of 

 the German school of philosophy, originality, patience, and profound 

 research, but yet a too big superstructure is reared upon insufficient 

 foundations. The gifted young author, however, is continuing his 

 observations, and further work from his laborious pen is looked for 

 with interest. Since he practically confines himself to the morphology 

 of the genital armature, internal and external, while Burr's system is 

 built up exclusively on general external morphology, it is most 

 satisfactory to learn that the results of these two authors do not clash 

 in any essential point, but differ only in a few trifling details. We 

 are therefore justified in hoping that the collaboration of these two 

 industrious workers will give us a really natural classification of this 

 difficult group. 



It is the Germans who first classified the earwigs into major 

 groups, but it is in the present work that we for the first time find 

 the whole section treated comprehensively. Burr ranks the earwigs 

 not as a family of the Orthoptera, but as an independent Order, a 

 natural result of the increase of modern knowledge. He divides it 

 into three Sub-orders. The first, the Ari.ienina, includes the curious 

 parasitic larval forms recently described by Dr. Jordan in Xocitates 

 Zooloijiccr,. The second, the llemiinerina, includes only the much- 

 discussed Hemiinerits, undoubtedly a relative of the earwigs, with a 

 strong superficial resemblance to a cockroach, and originally placed 

 by Walker, with his usual fatuity, among the mole-crickets. The 

 third suborder, Forficulina, contains the true earwigs. Burr follows 

 Zacher in dividing them into three Superfamilies, in descending order 

 of phylogenetic relationship, which is expressed by the gradual 

 reduction of the telson. The smaller details and divisions are beyond 

 the scope of this review, but in the main, Burr follows Zacher in an 

 arrangement of the Protodeniiaptera. The curious, flattened 

 subcorticinous Ajiachyidae have a superfamily to themselves, but they 

 are regarded as a highly specialised offshoot of the Labiduridae. The 

 Euderwaptera, containing the three families of higher earwigs, have 

 been treated solely on external morphological grounds, which only the 

 specialist is competent to criticise, but the point which appears most 

 striking, is the multiplication of small genera, many being 

 monomorphic, although Labia, much reduced as it is, still contains 

 forty-two species, and Foi/icida forty-three. 



An exceedingly valuable portion of the paper is the illustration. 

 The fine standard set in the half-volume on Dermaptera in the Fauna 

 of British India series, with nine half-tone and one coloured plate, is 

 even surpassed ; we have here eight coloured and one plain quarto 

 plates ; with numerous outline drawings mingled with the coloured 

 figures. If Dr. Burr had never written a line upon the earwigs, 

 Entomology would owe him a great debt for the production of these 

 admirable plates. 



The really beautiful and accurate drawings are by Mr. Edwin 

 Wilson. Mr. Wilson has long since made his reputation as an 

 unrivalled scientific draughtsman; in these plates he has indeed 

 surpassed himself ; his knowledge of the groups must by now be by 

 no means contemptible ; the drawings have been admirably reproduced, 

 with no loss of delicacy nor accuracy, and author, publisher and 

 engraver, as well as artist, are to be heartily congratulated upon the 

 beautiful and valuable result. 



