EARWIG. 
299 
them one after the other, carrying them between 
her jaws, and in a few days he observed that she 
had brought them all to one spot upon the surface 
of the earth, where she continued to sit, without 
quitting the heap a moment, and seemed regardless 
of every thing but the important purpose of hatching 
her eggs. The young were produced about the 
fourteenth of May, and he kept them in the box 
with their mother till they had changed their skins 
more than once. He fed them with small bits of 
apple, and saw them grow every day. The mother 
died, and her progeny devoured nearly the whole 
of her body. This unnatural propensity appeared 
to prevail throughout the family; for, if one of the 
little ones died, it was immediately attacked by 
the rest, and shared the same fate. M. de Geer, 
however, thinks they were driven to this necessity 
by his neglect, since he had not supplied them re- 
gularly with food. 
These insects are very destructive to our fruits 
and vegetables, and numbers of them may be found 
busily employed upon our esculent plants in the 
night-time. The common practice of putting the 
bowl of a tobacco-pipe, or the claws of a lobster, 
upon the top of an upright stick, will always at- 
tract them, as they constantly shun the light, and 
are ready to seek any recess during the day where 
they may be sheltered from its rays. 
