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ON ARIXENINA BURR, A SUBORDER OF DERMAPTERA. 

 By Malcolm Burr, Dover, and K. Jordan, Tring. 



(Text-figs. 12-28.) 



In 1909 the senior author described a new dermapterous insect 

 which he called Arixenia esau on account of its anomalous 

 structure and the hairiness of its body and appendages. The 

 build of the species is so strange among the Earwigs that Arixenia 

 was placed by Jordan into a family of its own, for which Burr 

 in 191 1 erected the new suborder Arixenina. In the account of 

 the morphology and anatomy of Arixenia esau the agreements 

 with and differences from the true Earwigs on the one hand 

 and the African parasitic Hemimerus on the other were pointed 

 out, and special attention was drawn to the primitive form of 

 the hairy callipers, the reduced eyes, and the peculiar structure 

 of the mandibles. 



This remarkable apterous insect was found by the taxi- 

 dermists Messrs. Edw. Gerrard and Sons, of Camden Town, 

 in the breast-pouch of a specimen of the naked bat, Cheiromeles 

 torquatus, collected in Sarawak by Mr. Charles Hose. Four 

 specimens in all were obtained. They proved to be immature, 

 but two were much more advanced in development than the 

 other two. It appeared to follow from the strange place where 

 the specimens were discovered, as well as from the great reduc- 

 tion of the eyes, that Arixenia was parasitic or semiparasitic on 

 Cheiromeles, and the contents of the gut showed the diet of 

 Arixenia to consist, at least partly, of insects. 



The specimens being immature, the intestines more or less 

 decomposed, and the breast pouch of Cheiromeles a strange place 

 for an insect in which to live, several points of importance re- 

 quired further investigation — particularly the questions whether 

 (i) the adult Arixenia differed essentially from the immature 

 individuals, (2) the organs of reproduction were of the ordinary 



