EORFICULA. EARWIG. 



Generic Character. 



Antenna setacese. 



Elytra dimidiata. Al<e 



tectse. 



Cauda forcipata. 



Antenna setaceous. 

 Wing -Sheaths halved, 



Wings covered. 

 Tail forcipated. 



JL HIS is not a numerous genus. The Forficula 

 auricularia or common Earwig is an insect so 

 familiarly known that a formal description might 

 seem unnecessary : its structure however is highly 

 curious, and its natural history well worthy of 

 particular observation: the wings of this insect 

 are remarkably elegant, and are convoluted 

 beneath their small sheaths in so curious a man- 

 ner that they cannot be viewed without admira- 

 tion: they are very large in proportion to the 

 animal, transparent, and slightly iridescent. The 

 earwig flies only by night, and it is not without 

 great difficulty that it can be made to expand its 

 wings by day : it is even probable that they would 

 receiv.e injury by any long exposure to the diurnal 

 air; the animal therefore keeps them completely 

 covered; and indeed so unusual a circumstance is 

 it to see them expanded, that Sir Thomas Brown, 

 in his Psettdodwia Epidemica, has thought it neces- 



