50 
ORTHOPTERA. 
almost moniliform joints. The mouthparts are of themandibulate type, 
the mandibles formed for crushing the food, the labium and maxillae for 
further mastication of the crushed food. The labial and maxillary 
pulps are apparently tactile organs, used to determine the nature of the 
food. The compound eyes are large with many facets; the thorax is 
of moderate size, its parts little coadapted; the upper wings ( tegmina) 
are short and thickened, rarely covering more than the base of the ab¬ 
domen. The lower wings fold into small compass, but are large, round, 
with short radial ribs, the outer part folding back on the basal, the basal 
folding radially as a fan does; this wing is a beautiful structure, which 
can be opened with care and in which the method of closing is more com¬ 
plex than in the wings of any other insect. The abdomen is often 
broader than the rest of the body, the segments imbricate, terminating 
in the forceps which are in some species half the length of the whole body. 
These forceps vary immensely in size and structure in different species 
and are not constant in length even in the same sex of some species. 
Those of the male are commonly larger; bilateral symmetry is not 
always preserved, and in a few, one limb crosses the other. The sexes 
are similar in general appearance; the male, however, having a greater 
number (nine) of visible ventral segments, the female having only 
seven. There are wingless forms, also some in which the tegmina are 
reduced to functionless lobes. These species resemble the young of 
winged species, but the latter have a softer integument, less developed 
forceps and a smaller number of joints in the antennae. 
Little is known of the life history and habits of Indian earwigs, 
though that little agrees with what is known of the family elsewhere. Of 
these insects, as a whole, it may be said that the round white eggs are 
laid in a mass in the ground or in shelter, the female in some cases re¬ 
maining with them until they hatch. The young are white at first and 
while similar in general form to the adults are likely to be mistaken for 
Thysanura. The transformation is a gradual one, the number of moults 
not being known. The following account from Cuvier’s Natural History 
relates to Forficula auricularia , Linn, the European Earwig:— 
“This curious insect,” observes Mr. Kirby, “so unjustly traduced 
by vulgar prejudice—as if the Creator had willed that the insect world 
should combine within itself examples of all that is most remarkable in 
