172 ilf?' Brindley, Notes on certain parasites, food, and capture 



eaten ; horse-radish leaves very little touched ; Michaelmas Daisy 

 leaves and flowers hardly, if at all, touched. 



Aug. 22 and 23. Beetroot leaves were much eaten, the leaf 

 stalks m particular, these being opened out and the pith taken : 

 white phlox leaves and flowers, the petals much gnawed and pollen 

 grains were found in the gut : dwarf bean leaves, little touched. 



Aug. 24 to 26. Blue Anchusa leaves and flowers, the petals 

 were much eaten but the leaves neglected : white rose leaves and 

 flowers, petals devoured but leaves untouched: golden rod (Solidago) 

 leaves and flowers, leaves nibbled at sides here and there but 

 flowers apparently neglected. 



Aug. 27 to 29. Yellow Oenothera flowers and pods, the petals 

 were much eaten but the pods remained untouched : white Japanese 

 anemone leaves and flowers, petals eaten to some extent, leaves 

 neglected : raspberry foliage, the leaves were not nibbled, but the 

 earwigs congregated in numbers on their hairy undersides, an 

 action much more pronounced than in the case of any of the other 

 plants given throughout the observations. 



Aug. 30 and 31. Cabbage leaves were destroyed by the blade 

 bemg gnawed down between the veins to the midrib while the 

 ends of the veins were shorn off: rhubarb leaves, eaten a good 

 dea : scarlet runner leaves, flowers, and pods, apparently quite 



Sept. 1 to 3. Plum fruit unskinned was much attacked- 

 potato tuber and rather unripe apple, both unskinned, were not 

 touched at all. 



Sept 4 to 10. On the 4th the plum was removed, but the 

 apple and potato were not attacked during the seven days. 



Sept 11 to 15. On the 11th the apple was cut across, with 

 the result that it was slightly gnawed during the five days : the 

 potato remained untouched. 



Sept. 16 to 2:l On the 16th the potato was cut across, which 

 was followed by its being very thoroughly attacked, though the 

 apple was not entirely deserted. 



Of the 51 earwigs whose alimentary canals were examined for 

 gregarine 7 contained spores of Fuccinea graminis (one had as 

 many as 180 and another 100), while the food of another individual 

 included numerous unidentified enjiomophilous pollen grains 

 Both spores and pollen grains appeared to be very slightly if at all" 

 digested. It is hoped to extend the observations in the coming 

 summer, as those recorded above were limited to only a few of the 

 possible food plants and only adult earwigs were kept. It may 

 well be that there are differences in the preferences of nymphs 

 and adults, and as the former are in the majority till about the 

 end of July, it is possible that they may be harmful to certain 

 plants m particular, as Jones's observations (o;j>. cit.) suggest. 



