118 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 
Ear-wigs (Forficula). 
The Common Eanr-wice (forjficula auricularia) is about one 
inch long, and has yellowish legs and a brown body. Its 
upper wings are very short, but the under ones are as long 
as the whole body, and will expand like those of a butterfly, 
making it seem almost impossible that they can be so folded 
up as to have room enough under their short wing-covers. 
These little animals present one very extraordinary phe- 
nomenon among insects; they are not only oviparous, but 
they bring forth their young by incubation; and during the 
month of April the females may always be found under 
stones, sitting upon their eggs like a hen. ‘The young are 
hatched like chickens, and in the month of June may be 
found with their mother, resembling her entirely, with ex- 
ception of the wings. 
It has long been a prevalent popular superstition that 
the Ear-wig creeps through the ear into the brain of sleep- 
ing persons, and thus occasions their death. But an in- 
stance of the kind has never come to light, and we can eas- 
ily believe it impossible, as their jaws and abdominal pinch- 
ers are not strong enough to admit of their doing any such 
injury. ‘They are, however, justly persecuted and destroy- 
ed by gardeners, because they make holes in ripe fruit, as 
peaches, apricots, pears, and prunes, and feed on them. 
They are also very prone to conceal themselves in pink 
flowers and dahlias, when in full bloom, and spoil them. 
On this account, gardeners often suspend lobster-shells, 
reeds, etc., on these plants, that the Ear-wigs may conceal 
themselves in them instead of the flowers. 
The Soothsayers (Mantis). 
The Soorusayers are distinguished by an unusually 
long, flat hind body, a perpendicularly-erected long neck- 
like thorax, short, horizontally-folded, generally green, or 
