134 NATURAL HISTORY. 



England on whitethorn bushes, makes its way into the dwellings of the Laplanders, and, when it occurs 

 in great numbers, inflicts serious damage upon their stores of provisions. Hence it was described by 

 Linnaeus as Jttatta lapponica. Several other small allied species are met with in Great Britain, 

 but it is to tropical America that we must go in search of the larger and finer forms. The largest of 

 all, the Gigantic Cockroach (Blabera gigantea), which measures about three inches in length, 

 is an inhabitant of South America and the West Indies, where it is known as the " Drummer," 

 from its possessing the very inconvenient faculty of producing a noise resembling a sharp knocking 

 with the knuckles against wainscot. This and other large species are said sometimes to devour the 

 extremities of the dead, and even to attack people when asleep. Blatta gigantea, however, is a 

 handsome insect, being of a pale yellow colour, like bone, with the head, a nearly square spot on the 

 pronotum, and a sort of dash near the base of the tegmina black or brown. The species of Phoraspis, 

 which are also American, are more convex than the ordinary run of Blattidse, and present no 

 inconsiderable resemblance to some Beetles of the family Cassididae. One of the best-known species 

 is the Phoraspis picta, a black insect rather over half an inch long, with the front margin of the 

 pronotum pale yellow, and a red band upon each of the tegmina. These insects are described as 

 frequenting flowers. 



TRIBE EUPLEXOPTERA, OR EARWIGS. 



This group, which includes the insects commonly known as Earwigs, is one that has always been 

 a trouble to systematic entomologists. Placed with the Beetles by Linnaeus, the Earwigs were 

 speedily removed to a more natural position, side by side with the forms that we have grouped 

 together as Orthoptera Genuina, whilst Leach and Kirby separated them as a distinct order, to which 

 Westwood applied the very appropriate name of Euplexoptera. There can be 110 question, however, 

 about their belonging to the order Orthoptera as here adopted, nor as to their being most nearly 

 allied to the true Orthoptera, but the opinions of entomologists are divided upon the question of 

 treating the group as a tribe of the latter, or as a distinct group of equal value. After much 

 hesitation we have preferred adopting the former course. They must be regarded as forming a sort of 

 side group, allied to the Phasmidse and Blattidse. 



The distinctive character of the group is found in the structure of the wings, both pairs of 

 which are developed in all but a few species. The anterior pair (tegmina) are of a horny or leathery 

 consistence, but always very much shorter than the abdomen, kid horizontally upon the back, and meet- 

 ing in the middle line by a straight suture. The hind wings, on the contrary, are of large size, and 

 composed of a very delicate membrane, with the exception of the basal portion of the anterior margin, 

 which is leathery or parchment-like, terminating at some distance from the base in a piece of somewhat 

 firmer texture. From this point starts a series of fine veins, which radiate in all directions to the 

 nearly semicircular margin of the wing, from which another set of veins stai'ts, running in the spaces 

 between the former towards the same centre, but without reaching it. All round the hinder part of 

 the wing, from its base to its apex, runs another vein nearly parallel to the semicircular margin, and 

 intersecting the whole of the radiating veins, and within this the latter all show a slightly thickened 

 portion. When folded in repose, the wings, notwithstanding their ample size, are completely 

 packed away beneath the short tegmina, and the mode in which this is managed is as follows : - 

 the wing folds up like a fan in the Direction of the radiating veins, and it is further bent up from 

 the end of the anterior basal leathery piece, and again folded down through the portion where the 

 radiating veins are thickened, and when these processes are completed the wing can be comfortably 

 concealed beneath the somewhat scanty covering furnished by the tegmina, the only part left 

 out being the stout tip of the leathery basal piece, which nearly always projects more or less, and, to 

 some extent, supplements the tegmina. The wings are deficient in a few species, and some of these 

 are also destitute of the tegmina ; but in these cases the insects present other characters which 

 sufficiently indicate the group to which they belong. The tribe contains only a single family. 



FAMILY VII. FORFICULID.E. 



The insects of this family present a great uniformity of structure, so that any common species 

 may serve as a type of the whole. They have a freely projecting head, united to the prothorax 

 by a short neck ; the eyes are small and round, and there are no ocelli : the lobes of the labium are 



