ORTHOPTERA. 219 



ment is rendered necessary by the extreme shortness 

 of the tegmina, which would otherwise be quite in- 

 adequate to cover any considerable portion of the 

 wing, and the latter would be exposed to continual 

 injury. The tegmina are square, resembling the 

 elytra of one of the Staphylinidse, without veins., and 

 the wings are somewhat ear-shaped, the nervures 

 radiating from a point not far from the centre of the 

 anterior border. The maxillary palpi are five jointed, 

 but the terminal joint is very minute. The ligula is 

 forked ; the antennae filiform, varying in the number 

 of articulations from twelve to thirty, in different 

 species, and even in different stages of the same in- 

 dividual. \ 



Besides the common ear wig, (F.auricularia^) there 

 are at least four other species indigenous to Britain, 

 and others are found in foreign countries; all our 

 native kinds, however, are rare, except F. minor, 

 (constituting the genus Labia of Leach,) which occurs 

 not unfrequently, and is usually observed on the wing, 

 which is not often the case with the common species. 

 The latter are nocturnal insects, frequenting moist and 

 shady places, and are particularly obnoxious to gar- 

 deners and florists for the injuries they commit to 

 fruits and flowers. They are most partial to the 



of itself the introduction of a new order. Some of the Coleop- 

 tera (such as Bupestris, Molorckus, &c.) deviate so far, in this 

 respect, from their associates, as to have their wings simply 

 folded longitudinally ; but this is not connected with any other 

 peculiarity which would warrant their separation from species 

 to which, in other respects, they are intimately allied. 



