SO HISTORY OF 



entirely groundless j but it were well if the accu- 

 sations which gardeners bring against the ear- 

 wig were as slightly founded. There is nothing 

 more certain than that it lives among flowers, and 

 destroys them. When fruit also has been wound- 

 ed by flies, the earwig generally comes in for a 

 second feast, and sucks those juices which they 

 first began to broach. Still, however, this insect 

 is not so noxious as it would seem, and seldom is 

 found but where the mischief has been originally 

 begun by others. Like all of this class, the ear- 

 wig is hatched from an egg. As there are vari- 

 ous kinds of this animal, so they choose different 

 places to breed in : in general, however, they lay 

 their eggs under the bark of plants, or in the clefts 

 of trees when beginning to decay. They proceed 

 from the egg in that reptile state in which they 

 are most commonly seen, and as they grow larger, 

 the wings bound under the skin begin to bour- 

 geon. It is amazing how very little room four 

 large wings take up before they are protruded, 

 for no person could ever conceive such an expan- 

 sion of natural drapery could be rolled up in so 

 small a packet. The sheath in which they are 

 enveloped folds and covers them so neatly, that 

 the animal seems quite destitute of wings ;* and 

 even when they are burst from their confinement, 

 the animal, by the power of the muscles and joints 

 which it has in the middle of its wings, can close- 

 ly fold them into a very narrow compass. When 

 the earwig has become a winged insect, it flies in 



* Swammerdam, p. 114. 



