ITS R UDIMENTAR Y WINGS. 2 7 9 



we distinguish them, at the first glance, from one another. 

 The elytra, those horny sheaths which protect the membran- 

 ous wings, embrace, in the Coleoptera, the entire upper 

 surface of the long annulated abdomen, and resemble vari- 

 coloured chlamydes. But now, look for the elytra of our 

 Forficula. You will hardly believe that they are represented 

 by this kind of abbreviated light-brown jacket, which does 

 not extend below the middle of the back. Do you observe 

 yonder whitish spots? They indicate the tips of the wings, 

 which are longer than their covers. Lift up one of the elytra 

 with your penknife, and you will find that the wing which it 

 partly screens is worth your attention. The fore part (we 

 should call it the upper, if the animal walked erect like a man) 

 is straight, and without a fold. Raise it with a pin to see the 

 posterior or lower part. Observe, it curves underneath so 

 as to bind the intermediate portion like a fan. But this 

 flabelliform wing, of tolerable dimensions when unfolded, 

 seems intended by the Creative Thought only to mark its 

 unity of plan : the earwig does not fly, it secures its food 

 by crawling. 



The elytra and the wings, inconspicuous as they are, pro- 

 duced so great an impression on the early naturalists, that they 

 made them the principal characteristics of an entire order of 

 insects. De Geer, a celebrated Swedish naturalist, named 

 them the Dermaptera (from ds^a, skin, and vreoov, wing), in 

 allusion to the transparent skin-like appearance of the elytra. 

 This name, though adopted by Kirby, has not been pre- 

 served. A French entomologist suggested the designation 



