LONDON INSECTS 73 



first wings, and a whole order taking rank among the 

 four wings the Strepsiptera have nothing better to 

 show, as front wings, than the miserable little ' screwed 

 up ' apologies which give the order its name. 



Unfortunately, however much we may have cause 

 to lament the scarcity of the more showy Butterflies in 

 London, we cannot complain of any want of specimens 

 of the first great order of insects, the ' wingless.' There 

 are three classes of the order, all most objectionable, 

 and the less said about any of them, perhaps, the 

 better. The class, already referred to, which, having 

 little scales to mark where wings should be, connects 

 the order with the flying insects, is certainly not the 

 worst. 



Its most familiar species is the Flea. Bad as it is, 

 with its ' double lancet mouth,' in one respect the Flea 

 ranks high in the moral scale. 



The infant members of colonies of Bees and Ants 

 are, as we all know, fed by their elders. But it is 

 never the actual mother who does the work. With 

 few if any known exceptions, Fleas and Earwigs are 

 the only common English insects which feed their 

 own young themselves, and of the two the smaller is 

 perhaps the more deserving of praise, for she, on her 

 foraging raids, risks her life in a way which an Earwig 

 never needs to do. There are only two allusions in the 

 Bible to Fleas. Both are in David's appeals to Saul, 

 and are suggestive, not of any evil-doing, but only of 

 the miserable hunted life, without a moment's peace 

 and quiet, which the poor things lead. A small maiden 



