220 SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. 



petals, and many of the most cherished ornaments of 

 the flower border, particularly the stately dahlia, are 

 frequently rendered unseemly hy their attacks. The 

 common earwig is widely distributed, and has been 

 found as far north as Boothia. 



The common names given to this insect in Britain 

 are rather peculiar, and it is not easy to say whal 

 circumstances have suggested them. Throughout the 

 south of Scotland it is known to the peasantry by the 

 name of coackbell, for what reason I am unable to 

 conjecture. Mr. Newman suggests that earwig, an 

 unmeaning term, may be a corruption of earwing* as 

 the wing is shaped very like the human ear, an ex- 

 planation not unlikely to be the true one. 



Several anomalies have already been alluded to in 

 the structure of earwigs, and it remains to be addec 

 that a very remarkable one also occurs in their eco- 

 nomy. Frisch, De Geer, and many other entomolo- 

 gists have observed the female watching over her eggs 

 with great care, and even covering them with her 

 body as if on purpose to hatch them, a fact which is 

 well known to those who are in the habit of overturn- 

 ing stones in search of insects. This is a remarkable 

 contrast to the practice of nearly all other insects 

 whose maternal duties entirely cease with the depo- 

 sition of the eggs, which they abandon to every hostile 

 influence. The young seem to appreciate and return 

 their mother's affection, for they have been seen 

 nestling under their parent like chickens under a hen 

 It must not be imagined, as some appear to have done 

 that the incubation alluded to is designed to hatcl 



