MORE ABOUT THE EARWIG. 281 



The order of Orthoptera, with which we are now concerned, 

 is not very well known. The reason is, perhaps, that the 

 insects belonging to it earwigs, cockroaches, grasshoppers, 

 crickets are not less disagreeable than useless, so far as man 

 is concerned. Being nearly all of them omnivorous, like 

 man himself, they frequently aid him, very much against his in- 

 clination, in the consumption of natural products of every kind. 



It has been remarked that the species of great animals are 

 far fewer in number than those of the little. This remark 

 applies with peculiar force to the Orthoptera, which do not 

 include nearly so many small species as the Coleoptera. 



The earwig is the type of the tiny group of the Forficulidae, 

 of which two species only are known to the common world 

 the Forficula auricularia and the Forficida minor. 



. The first species everybody is acquainted with. We have 

 already spoken of its elytra and its wings ; but we now say a 

 word upon the two extremities of its body. The two antennae, 

 which crown the head, are extremely mobile, owing, of 

 course, to the numerous articulations of which they are made 

 up. These are fourteen in number (if we include the base, 

 which ^ itself composed of two movable parts). In reality, 

 however, there are but twelve ; for we ought to eliminate the 

 base, because, in form and size, it differs greatly from articu- 

 lations properly so called, and, at the same time, to regard 

 as one the articulation or joint inserted in it. In fine, I am 

 of opinion, contrary to the general conclusion, that the 

 antennae of the earwig consist but of twelve articulations, 



