CERTAIN LITTLE-KNO WN SPECIES. 283 



The small species, known as Forficula minor, is not very 

 common. It is about half the size of its better-known 

 congener, and is also distinguished from it by its joints, ten 

 in number, by its legs, of a very pale yellow, and by its 

 pincers, which are not only very short, but almost straight, 

 and scarcely marked, even in the male, with any indentations. 

 More, the wings are of the colour of the elytra, and without 

 any white spots. This species is chiefly met with in the spring- 

 time, and then in damp sandy localities, near ponds and rivers. 



Another, and still rarer species, to which we may permit 

 ourselves an allusion, has yellow pincers, rather black at the 

 extremity, and garnished inside, towards the middle, with a 

 horny tubercular projection. In the Pyrenees a species 

 has been found which has no wings at all, and has there- 

 fore been named Forficula aptera. 



Our readers will now inquire, What is the use of this 

 curiously constructed animal? Is it not an abomination to 

 the gardener? Well, we admit that it eats up the leaves 

 of his plants, and the petals of his flowers, especially of the 

 dahlia; but, on the other hand, it destroys those far more 

 injurious insects, thrips, aphis^ and the like. 



But it has a peculiar interest for the scientific student from 

 the point of view of what we may call its muscular dyna- 

 mometry, its power of traction, which is far superior to that 

 of our strongest quadrupeds. 



Do you doubt the truth of this assertion ? Try, then, the 

 following experiment. 



