16 



GUIDE TO INSECTS. 



Table- 

 case 31. 



Like most other parasites it is difficult to determine where it 

 should be located in a natural system, and it is therefore placed 



Fig. 12. Fig. 13. 



^Coxa 



-Coxa. 



Under side of an earwig. (1077- ) Under side of a cockroach. (1080.) 

 The coxae are shaded black. 



here immediately after the Thysanura and at the head of the 

 Orfhoptera. It was originally described as allied to the Gryllidce 

 (cricke'ts). 



Family FORFICULIDJE. 



Following this are the earwigs, Forficulidce (1060-1069). Of 

 this family there are many hundreds of species, and they are found 

 all over the world ; two are common in Britain, Forficula auricularia, 

 (1067) and Labia minor (1065), the smaller of these, however, 

 is not often seen as it is chiefly found in manure heaps. One of 

 the chief characteristics of this family is the pair of forceps at the 

 end of the body. The shape of these varies very much, and they 

 are smaller in the female than in the male. They are modifications 

 of the cerci. In the common British and many other species the 

 insect leaves the egg with the forceps already to some extent formed, 



