Tegmina 
Forceps 
Antenna 
1.5 
2 
3-3.5 
1.5 
1.5 
3-3.5 mm. 
294 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
legs. Antennae with eleven segments, brown, segments obconic. 
Pronotum nearly as wide as head, a little wider than long, its hind 
margin very slightly convex, hind angles rounded. Tegmina 
short, but little exceeding pronotum, squarely truncate. Wings 
absent or not visible. Abdomen three-fourths as wide as long, 
about equal to rest of body without forceps. Fourth (third 
visible) tergite with a conspicuous tubercle on each side near hind 
margin and indication of same on preceding segment. Forceps 
of male as long as tegmina, sub-arcuate, separated at base by a 
space equal to width, the inner margin sinuate at base; pygidium 
of male truncate apically, the corners beveled, the angles slightly 
denticulate. Forceps of female equal to those of male, straight, 
arcuate at tip, the inner margins finely crenulate denticulate at 
base. 
Measurements. 
Body and forceps Width 
Male 7.7- 8.7 8 
Female 7.8-10.3 2.5-3 
This cosmopolitan species was first taken in New England by 
Mr. Samuel Henshaw who secured it in numbers in a sugar 
refinery at Boston on March 30, 1889. Specimens were referred 
to Mr, Scudder and identified by him as his Labia burgessi and 
later recorded under this name. 
On February 1, 1909, I captured several adults and nymphs in 
the foul basement of a slaughter-house at Brighton, Mass., where 
they were associated with the Ring-legged Earwig {q. v.) and 
dermestid beetles. All these insects were apparently very much 
at home in the matted masses of moist and decomposing animal 
matter, rank-smelling and dust-covered, in close proximity to 
the hot-water pipes. Here they lived as scavengers or pred- 
ators, feeding on the unlimited supply of animal substances 
under conditions which promoted activity at all seasons of the 
year. A search for them on June 30, 1914, was unsuccessful, 
the old debris having been removed, but in the small accumu- 
lation present at that time species of Hister and staphylinid 
beetles were obtained and Tenebrio molitor was not uncommon 
in the near vicinity. 
Burr says that this Earwig "exists in swarms, under artificial 
conditions, in almost every part of the world." 
