164 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



the eggs with her jaws, and conveyed them all to the 

 same spot, where she remained jealously guarding her 

 treasure till the young were hatched. And even then 

 the cares of maternity were not over, for the young 

 ones clustered round their mother, running in and out 

 between her legs and under her body, like chickens 

 under the mother hen. 



When first hatched the young are quite white, except 

 for the eyes and jaws, which are reddish. They soon 

 darken, however, into a tolerably uniform pale brown. 

 They are very similar in shape to the adult, but have 

 no wings or wing-covers; while their antennae also have 

 fewer joints, and their forceps are more simple in form. 

 After several moults, each accompanied by an increase 

 in size and a darkening in colour, they appear, like the 

 cockroaches and crickets, with the outline of wings 

 sculptured on the thorax ; in this form they are called 

 nymphs or pupae. The next moult yields the perfect 

 and mature insect, with the full number of joints to 

 the antennae, wings, wing-covers, and forceps all perfect, 

 and the sexual organs fully developed. At each moult 

 the insect is soft and white immediately after casting 

 the skin, but gradually becomes harder and darker 

 by exposure. 



Earwigs are extremely voracious; they are chiefly 

 vegetable feeders, and are especially fond of the corollas 

 of flowers, so that they are a great annoyance to gar- 

 deners by nibbling the flowers, and thus spoiling their 

 symmetry. Their method of procedure can be easily 

 watched by putting a few specimens in a glass jar, and 

 supplying them with flowers such as the garden nastur- 

 tiums (tropceolums). The jaws work in the same way as 

 those of cockroaches, the palpi being in incessant motion 

 all the time. 



