296 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
This Earwig has been reported from New York, New Jersey, 
and Indiana, probably having been introduced with merchandise, 
plants, or similar materials, but its permanent colonization in any 
of these States is very much in doubt. Unfortunately, there is no 
uncertainty concerning its establishment in force at Newport, 
R. I., where it was first noticed in 1912, and, in 1916, ten square 
miles were found to be infested, with many outlying colonies. So 
abundant is it that it has become a decided nuisance by entering 
houses at night. "On one estate, each morning when the porch 
awnings were let down, over a quart of earwigs dropped out and 
were swept up and burned." 
In Europe this species is reported as laying its eggs early in the 
spring. At Newport 75 per cent of captive females laid between 
November 6 and December 26. The females hibernate in the 
ground from two to eight inches beneath the surface and attend 
the young nymphs in the spring. These latter are at first white, 
gradually become olive green and even steel gray, with nearly 
transparent legs and a dull-brown head. There are four nymph 
stages and maturity is reached about July 18. 
The young nymphs leave their nests especially on warm nights 
about two hours after dark. They swarm over the ground within 
a few feet of the nest and feed on very tender green shoots of 
clover and grass. Later, they attack Lima bean and dahlia 
plants, and the flowers of sweet-william and roses, doing great 
damage. The adults feed largely on flowers but also eat larvae 
and dead and dying insects, even of their own species. 
Late in summer the adults gather in large numbers in the shelter 
afforded by crevices and vines near a good food supply and mate. 
The adult males die off in the fall and relatively few females 
hibernate successfully. 
This Earwig has also been recorded from Kingston, R. I. (pos- 
sibly stragglers from the Newport colony?), and is reported as 
having been bred from imported brown-tail moth nests at the 
Gipsy Moth Laboratory at Melrose, Mass. (For remedies, see 
p. 268 and U. S. Dept. Agric, Bull. 566.) 
Spandex sp. 
Spandex percheron [sic] Gu^kin and Percheron. Hebard, Ent. News, vol. 
28, p. 323 (1917). 
A single example of this genus has been captured in New Eng- 
