448 



longer than broad, but it is slightly narrower than the pronotam, and 

 has large eyes, reaching back nearly to the hind border — characters 

 which are scarcely in keeping with the reference of the insect to Lahi- 

 dnra ; with no other genus, however, does it accord so well. The 

 antennre ate too fragmentary to furnish us any clew to their structure, 

 and of the mouth-parts nothing can be determined. The pronotum is 

 of about equal length and breadth, quadrate, the anterior angles 

 bluntly rounded, the posterior border very broadly convex, the margin 

 nowhere elevated ; there is a slight but distinct median sulcation, fading 

 posteriorly. The rest of the thorax is of the same width as the prouo- 

 tum ; the tegmina are twice as long as the pronotum, squarely docked 

 at the tip ; the folded wings reach more than half as far again beyond 

 the tip of the tegmina, and, in the specimen examined, are partially 

 opened on the right side, so as to show incompletely the peculiar rayed 

 arrangement of the nervules. The legs are short, the femora broadest 

 in the middle, the tibite moderately slender and slightly bowed; but the 

 tarsal joints are too obscure to determine their structure ; the faintness 

 of the legs probably shows that they were paler than the body, which 

 is of a griseous brown. The joint of the abdomen can readily be dis- 

 tinguished, although a portion of some of them are injured, and espe- 

 cially of the third segment ; this renders it impossible to decide cer- 

 tainly whether plications were present on this segment ; but there are no 

 signs of any, either on this or on the better-preserved second segment; 

 ■ it would seem as if such plications should be seen, if present, at least 

 on the second segment; for the abdomen is preserved on a partial 

 side-view, and the portion of the second segment where plications are 

 to be looked for is perfectly preserved. The abdomen appears to have 

 been equal as viewed from above, although the greater fullness in depth 

 of the middle joints gives the specimen preserved on a partial side- 

 view a great height in the middle; the last segment is large, scarcely 

 narrowing, and furnished with a pair of stout, straight, tapering, 

 bluntly-pointed forceps as viewed from the side, not so long as the teg- 

 mina, and apparently curved inward at the tip. The insect is slightly 

 smaller than the common L. riparia (Pall.) Dohrn. 



Entire length of specimen, 19.5™'"; length of head. 2.2™™; breadth 

 of same, 1.75™^; length of pronotum, 1.9™™; breadth of same, 2™"'; 

 length of tegmina, 3.G™™; extent of folded wings beyond tegmina, 

 2.5™™; length of hind femora, 2.75™™; of hind tibiae, 1.75™™; of for- 

 ceps, 2.5™-™. 



Fossil earwigs are not unknown, but have been imperfectly studied. 

 Heer gives woodcuts of two, Forjicula recta, which he compares with 

 Forchiella anmdipes (Luc.) Dohrn, and F. primkjenia, compared with the 

 common earwig, i. e., Forf. anricidaria Linn.; he also mentions a third, 

 F. mimita, compared with i«^/ft minor {JArni.) Leach. These all come 

 from the Miocene of Oeningen.* Long ago, Serres spoke of a species 

 allied to Forjicula iiaralleia Fabr. and F. auricularia Linn, (both the 

 same species), of which many specimens had been found at Aix in Pro- 

 vence.! Perhaps Mr. Oustalet, in his forthcoming memoirs on the fos- 

 sil insects of Southern France, will acquaint us more perfectly with this 

 insect; but I saw no si^ecimens of Forjiculariw in his hands in 1873. 

 One or two species are also reported from Prussian amber. Burmeister 

 says that the Berlin Museum possesses a specimen ''having short fili- 

 form antennfe, composed at most of sixteen joints, gradually increasing 



*Heer, Urwelt der ScLl^Yeiz, 367, figs. 226-227. 

 t Serres, G6oguosie des terrains tertiaires, 225. 



