ORTHOPTERA. 
239 
ment is rendered necessary by the extreme shortness 
of the tegnrina, which would otherwise be quite in- 
adequate to cover any considerable portion of the 
wing, and the latter would be exposed to continual 
injury. The tegmina are square, resembling the 
elytra of one of the Staphylinidse, without veins, and 
the wings are somewhat ear-shaped, the nervures 
radiating from a point not far from the centre of the 
anterior border. The maxillary palpi are five jointed, 
but the terminal joint is very minute. The ligula is 
forked ; the antennae filiform, varying in the number 
of articulations from twelve to thirty, in different 
species, and even in different stages of the same in- 
dividual. 
Besides the common earwig, (F. auricular ia 3 ) there 
are at least four other species indigenous to Britain, 
and others are found in foreign countries ; all our 
native kinds, however, are rare, except F. minor , 
(constituting the genus Labia of Leach,) which occurs 
not unfrequently, and is usually observed on the wing, 
which is not often the case with the common species. 
The latter are nocturnal insects, frequenting moist and 
shady places, and are particularly obnoxious to gar- 
deners and florists for the injuries they commit to 
fruits and flowers. They are most partial to the 
of itself the introduction of a new order. Some of the Coleop- 
tera (such as Bupestris, Molorchus , &c.) deviate so far, in this 
respect, from their associates, as to have their wings simply 
folded longitudinally ; but this is not connected with any other 
peculiarity which would warrant their separation from species 
to which, in other respects, they are intimately allied, 
