EUPLEXOPTERA. Ill 



seems intended to be generally useful. One correspon- 

 dent of the " Zoologist" describes the Labia minor, when 

 about to take flight, as turning up its tail, and inserting 

 a point of the forceps under first one wing-case and then 

 the other ; by this means quickly unfolding the wings. 

 Another observer, writing to the same journal, re- 

 ports having seen the common Earwig (F. auricularia) 

 seize a small beetle round its middle with the forceps, 

 and carry it away in spite of its struggles. 



The reader probably knows that the Earwig is credited 

 with being as careful a mother as the domestic hen ; 

 not only sitting on her eggs until they are hatched, but 

 actually covering her young brood like a mother bird. 

 He may not, however, be aware that these facts have 

 been observed and are related by the best authorities, 

 and are not mere popular reports. 



Of the other habits of the Earwig it is not easy to 

 speak quite so favourably ; the young, for instance, can 

 hardly be said to render due respect in return for such 

 maternal tenderness, as, though professed vegetarians, 

 they have been known to devour the dead body of their 

 mother (Westwood, p. 403). The account of an Earwig 

 carrying off a beetle points also to a carnivorous taste, 

 as it is difficult to imagine any use but one to which his 

 captive could be put. 



Flowers are the chief food of the Earwigs, but they by 

 no means confine themselves to this, but consume fruit, 

 and other vegetable productions ; indeed, there have 

 been cases when, otherwise, their food must have failed 

 them. There is an account in the " Gentleman's 

 Magazine" for August 1755, of an extraordinary swarm 

 of Earwigs at Stroud : " There were such quantities of 

 Earwigs in that vicinity, that they destroyed not only the 



