124 



FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



for yourself in the case of peaches and strawberries ; 

 though I fancy they never attack a perfect speci- 

 men for themselves. My own experience is that 

 they wait till a wasp has bored a hole in the rind 

 of an apricot or a nectarine, and then creep in 



to enlarge it by their ad- 

 ditional efforts. If on any 

 such occasion, instead of 

 throwing the fruit away 

 in disgust, you will watch 

 the little robbers with a 

 pocket lens, you may (if 

 fortunate) have a chance 

 of observing the mode 

 of action of the mouth 

 organs. That is the diffe- 

 rence between the point 

 of view of the naturalist 

 and the general public. 

 The outsider says : " What 

 a nuisance ! This peach 

 is full of earwigs ! " The 

 naturalist says : " How 

 NO. i. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLE- lucky ! Now I shall have 

 MAN. (OBSERVE HIS TAIL.) a chance of seeing how 



he uses his mandibles ! " 



And here let me call your attention in passing 

 to the portrait of a male earwig, the father of 

 a large family, in illustration No. i. You will 

 observe at once for yourself that he has a long 

 body, divided as a whole into three well-demar- 

 cated portions. In front comes the head, with 



