HISTORY OF INSECTS. 11 



position, appear totally useless as organs of flight. When 

 unfolded, the hind wings are remarkably beautiful ; they are 

 of ample size, perfectly transparent, displaying prismatic 

 colours when moved in the light ; and are intersected by 

 veins, which radiate from near the centre to the margin. 

 The shape of these wings, when folly 

 opened, is nearly that of the human ear ; 

 and from this circumstance it seems highly 

 probable that the original name of this 

 insect was earwing. 



Earwigs subsist principally on the leaves and flowers of 

 plants, and on fruit ; and they are entirely nocturnal in- 

 sects, retiring by day into dark crevices and corners, where 

 they are screened from observation. The rapidity with 

 which they devour the petals of a flower is remarkable ; 

 they clasp the edge of a petal in their fore legs, and then, 

 stretching out their head as far as possible, bite out a 

 mouthful ; then another mouthful nearer, and so on till the 

 head is brought to the fore legs. This mode of eating is 

 exactly that which is practised by the caterpillars of but- 

 terflies and moths ; the part of a leaf or petal is eaten out 

 in a semicircular form, and the head is thrust out to the 

 extreme part, after every series of mouthfuls. Pinks, car- 

 nations, and dahlias, very frequently lose all their beauty 

 from the voracity of these insects. When the time of 

 breeding has arrived, which is generally in the autumn, the 

 female retires for protection to the cracks in the bark of old 

 trees, or the interstices of weather-boarding, or under heavy 

 stones on the ground : here she commences laying her eggs. 

 The eggs are usually from twenty to fifty in number : when 

 the female has finished laying them, she does not forsake 

 them as is the habit of other insects, but sits on them in the 

 manner of a hen, until they are hatched. 



When the little ones leave the shell, they are instantly 



