THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



in others, some Carabidce and Curculionidce for example, they are 

 soldered together along their inner and dorsal margin, the posterior 

 wings being then absent. 



The Euplexoptera, or Earwigs, are insects which may be truly said 

 to hide their light under a bushel. To judge from the small and in- 

 significant size of the elytra, one would form a very poor conception 

 of the wonderful wings that they so effectually conceal. When 

 properly mounted for the microscope, they become objects of great 

 beauty, and I found the following method the only one that enabled 

 me to make a satisfactory slide for the purpose of figuring. The wing 

 having been removed at the root, is laid on the surface of some dis- 

 tilled water placed on a glass slip. A touch or two with the needle 

 point will be sufficient, for the wing will spread itself. Cover with 

 another glass, and allow absolute alcohol to trickle between the two, 

 adding it drop by drop every few minutes. In about half-an-hour it 

 will be perfectly dehydrated — stiff and rigid — when it may be trans- 

 ferred to oil of cloves, in which it must be well boiled to expel all 

 trace of air, then mount in Canada balsam. The wing may be said 



to consist of two parts, the 

 lesser and basal portion, which 

 is of a leathery consistence 

 (see Fig. 17, representing one 

 the members of Forficula atiri- 

 cularia), and the remainder 

 of delicate transparent mem- 

 brane. The nervures are of 

 two kinds, radial and trans- 

 Fig. 17. 



verse. The former branch 

 from a curved ray at B, the latter A runs parallel with the hind 

 margin. A secondary and incomplete series of radial nerves intersect 

 this curvilinear nervure, having blind terminations at the ends nearest 

 the base, but abruptly stopped at their other extremities by the 

 margin of the wing. At first glance it would appear somewhat of an 

 enigma how the insect could stow such a capacious spread of mem- 

 brane beneath its tiny elytra, but the seeming puzzle is simplicity 

 itself. The wing is first closed up like a fan, then doubled over at 

 the point signified in the figure by the letter A, and again at B, so 

 that the whole structure is thus laid in a neatly folded bundle over 

 the basal portion before alluded to. This all sounds very reasonable, 

 but a moment's reflection will suffice to show that something is want- 

 ing. In other words, we have the mechanism, but from whence 



