THOSE HORRID EARWIGS 



133 



wing-tip, which will not close of its own mere 

 motion. Then, as you can observe in No. 13, 

 she rapidly clips the pincers together, thus tucking 

 in the last bit of the wing much as a hand might 

 do it. After that, she straightens her body again, 

 as in No. 14, 

 and is ready 

 to replace the 

 folded wings be- 

 hind the hard 

 wing-covers. Of 

 course, all this 

 process, which 

 we have repre- 

 sented here in 

 detail in its vari- 

 ous stages, only 

 occupies in life 

 a few brief se- 

 conds; so per- 

 fect and so au- 

 tomatic is the 

 mechanism that 

 the earwig man- 

 ages it all as readily as a lady closes up her fan 

 and reopens it. 



In No. 15, our earwig is shown in the act of 

 replacing the folded wings over the abdomen ; 

 while the hard, horny wing-case is beginning to 

 cover them. In No. 16 she has folded them quite 

 back, but has lifted the wing-cases again, as if to 

 fly off once more ; this illustration exhibits the 



NO. 8. A SECOND LATER. 



