THE COMMON EARWIG 



and fuller development takes place, and finally choco- 

 late-brown. When disturbed below ground in early 

 Spring, the lighter-coloured, immature specimens may 

 be seen. The forceps of the male are more fully de- 

 veloped than in his mate, and he has nine segments, 

 instead of seven, on the abdomen. That the Earwig 

 is a garden enemy is undoubted, and in some years the 

 large numbers that appear are such that a battle-royal 

 must be waged against them. It is largely a vege- 

 tarian, and has a habit of eating aw^ay the blossoms of 

 our favourite flowers and other plant-parts, but it is 

 Baid, on good authority, to be of some service in feeding 

 upon the larva and pupa of insects, and thus helping 

 to keep in check other obnoxious pests. The in- 

 fallible habit of running to cover results in the easy 

 capture of these garden tenants by placing an inverted 

 flower-pot, hollow rod, bunch of hay or straw, or other 

 trap of this kind near the plants visited, and dealing 

 with the insects captured the succeeding morning, as 

 they appear to carry out their chief depredations at 

 dark, and may be trapped during the silence of the 

 midnight-w^atch. They do not like paraffin, and we 

 have known a ring of this oil, smeared on the ground all 

 round a house, to effectually keep at bay a plague of 

 these insects which previously had a habit of invading 

 the homestead, and being found in hair brushes, beds, 

 and other unlikely and unwelcome places. We pass 

 by those very remarkable creatures popularly known 

 as Stick-Insects (Family Phasmidce), but which can be 



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