27 ■ 



Critical and Historical Notes ok Forficularle; includ- 

 ing Descriptions of new Generic Forms and an Alpha- 

 betical Synonymic List of the Described Species. 



In the tenth edition of his Systenia Natures, Linne placed the two 

 common species of European earwigs (auricularia and minor) in the 

 genus Forficula, among the Coleoptera. Fabricius, in all his works, 

 placed this genus at the head of his Ulonata (;= Dermaptera DeGeer, 

 Orthoptera auct.) following close upon the Coleoptera. Latreille, in 

 179G, was the first to recognize the wider separation of the earwig-s 

 from the other Dermaptera, and divided the whole order into three 

 (unnamed) sections; of which the earwigs formed the first, Blatta 

 the second, and the remaining Dermaptera the third. Dumeril, in 

 his Zoologie analytique (^1806), recognizing the family value of the 

 group, called it Labidoures — a name which, from its gallic dress, has 

 no more claim upon our attention than perce-oreille. Kirby ^ subse- 

 quently maintained the ordinal character of the group, and gave it 

 the name Dermaptera, in which he was followed in 1815 by Leach. 

 But neither can this name be retained, since it was given by DeGeer 

 in 1773 to the whole suborder afterward called Ulonata by Fabricius 

 (1775), and^excluding the earwigs — Orthopteres by Olivier (1789).^ 

 Moreover, Latreille, recognizing it in its true character as a family 

 of Dermaptera, had already ^ given the group the nanie of FoRFic- 

 ULARiiE, and this name must be retained. After tabulating the 



1 Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., Xi, 87 note (1813). 



* By a strange oversight or neglect, the W9rk of the distinguished Swedish natu- 

 ralist, who first separated these insects from the Hemiptera of his fellow country- 

 man Linn^, has been very generally overlooked, and the term Orthoptera has been 

 usually applied to the suborder — a name which, in its Latin form, was not proposed 

 until 1806 by Latreille (in Sonniui's Buffon). 



3 Considerations g6ut5rales sur Torder nature! des Crustac^s, etc. (1810). 



