17-i Mr Brindley, Notes on certain jKtrasites, food, and cajytare 



can be discussed adequately something must be known of the con- 

 ditions obtaining on Rosevean and Gorregan, its small and only 

 immediate neighbours. Of these islets I possess no information 

 at present. Also, there are other peculiarities as regards the 

 earwigs of Rosevear and Round Island which are beyond the 

 scope of the present paper. 



There is no doubt that earwigs sometimes kill and devour 

 other insects larger than themselves, though the event is probably 

 somewhat exceptional. Chapman ("Notes on Early Stages and 

 Life History of the Earwig," Entom. Record, xxix. no. 2, Jan. 

 1917) states that "animal food, such as dead insects, seemed always 

 acceptable " to earwigs in captivity. Sopp {op. cit. p. 42) regards 

 earwigs as probably "omnivorous feeders, largely carnivorous by 

 choice, but often phytophagous, frugivorous, or even necrophagous 

 of necessity." Whether attack on living animals as prey is 

 common I cannot say, I have no observations of my own to 

 record ; ^ but it appears that occasionally the forcipes, organs of 

 much disputed function, are used for this purpose. Sopp (op. cit.) 

 has seen them employed to seize and crush large flies which were 

 . subsequently devoured and quotes an instance of a larva similarly 

 attacked from the records of another observer. Burr (Entom. 

 Record, Sept. 1903) saw a blue-bottle seized by the forcipes of a 

 male Labidura riparia kept in captivity. Lucas {Entom. xxxviii. 

 1905, p. 267) records a female of this species as using the forcipes 

 to capture a cinnabar moth larva, which was afterwards devoured. 

 Jones {op. cit.) records that the Newport, R.I., earwigs attack and 

 devour " certain sluggish unprotected larvae." 



There are many observations which show that earwigs in some 

 localities prey upon small insect larvae, and in certain instances 

 they have been recommended as a means of diminishing plant 

 pests. Thus the following references, as also others quoted in this 

 paper, have appeared in issues of The Review of Applied Entomo- 

 logy, 1913—1918. Bernard {Technique des traitements contre les 

 Insectes de la Vigne, Paris, 1914) states that they devour the 

 pupae of one or more of Clysia amhiguella, Polychrosis botrana, 

 and Sparanothis pilleriana {v. also 'Kirkaldy, "^^i^o??*. xxxiii. 

 1900, p. 87). Dobrodeev {Mem. Bur. Entom. of Gent Board 

 of Land Administration and Agric, Petrograd, XL no. 5, 1915) 

 makes a similar report as regards the destruction of the first tAvo 

 Tortricidae named above by earwigs. Molz {Zeits. Angeiuandte 

 Ghemie, Leipzig, xxvi. nos. 77, 79, 1913, pp. 533, 587) speaks of 

 earwigs as natural enemies of the vine moth. Feytaud {Bull. 

 Soc. Etude Vidg. Zool. Agric. Bordeaux, xv. nos. 1—8, Jan.— Aug 

 1916, pp. 1, 21, 43, 52, 65, 88) states that earwigs destroy the 

 eggs and larvae of the coccid vine pests Eidecanium persica and 

 (probably) Pulvinaria vitis. Harrison in "An unusual parsnip 



