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IX. Dermaptera (Earwigs) preserved in Amber, from Prussia. 

 By Malcolm Burr, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.F.S. 



(Plate 31.) 



Read 2nd March, 1911. 





J.HBOUGH tlie kindness of the late Br. Klebs, of Konigsberg, who possessed the finest 

 collection in existence of insects in amber, I have had the privilege of examining the 

 earwigs that have been thus preserved. The Birector of the Berlin Natural History 

 Museum has also very kindly communicated to me the species in his charge for purposes 

 of comparison and examination. 



A good number are immature, having the essential characters feebly developed, but 

 there are mature males of four distinct and well-defined species. These are, on the 

 whole, exceedingly well preserved, but it is very irritating when the important features 

 are obscured by the opaque white material and waviness noted by Mr. Shelford in his 

 paper on the cockroaches in amber (J. Linn. Soc, Zool. xxx. p. 336, 1910). 



In all these four species the tarsi have the second segment more or less dilated, and 

 therefore they must be referred to the family Eorficulidaj in the strict sense. But some 

 of them have distinct keels along the shoulder of the elytra, a feature which in this 

 family is confined to certain genera of the Ancistrogastrinaa and Opisthocosrniinae, with 

 which these fossil species have no near relation. In other respects, as the cylindrical 

 branches of the forceps, some of these specimens differ from the typical genus Forficula, 

 although one at least cannot be generically separated from Forficula auricularia, L. 



Properly speaking, therefore, a new genus should be erected for the others, as they fall 

 into no genus at present existing ; but I hesitate to base new genera upon such relatively 

 meagre material, and prefer to range them all in Forficula, using that name in the 

 comprehensive old-fashioned sense. 



When this particular family has been once more revised and reduced to a better 

 system, it may be possible to range these fossil species in genera that may be required 

 for existing forms. 



The first feature that strikes the observer of these specimens is their up-to-date 

 appearance. There is nothing archaic or old-fashioned about them, and although I am 

 unable to find in them close relationship with any known forms, there is nothing to 

 suggest that these very creatures may not yet be discovered. 



Forficula precursor, for instance, is very much like some known Oriental and 

 Ethiopian species, while the forceps and pygidium of F. klebsi closely resemble those of 

 Nala figinii, Burr, from Eritrea. The coloration, so far as can be detected, the 

 general appearance, and especially the keels of the elytra of F. ballica and F. prisiina 



SECOND SKEIES. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XI. 22 



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