EARWIG, OR FORFICULA. 131 
oval eggs ; and taking her and the eggs, 
he put them, with some fresh earth, into 
a box. The eggs she speedily col- 
lected, and replaced them in a heap, 
on which she unremittingly sat till the 
middle of May, when her little progeny 
came out. 
Lucy. Then the earwig hatches her 
eggs as a hen does. But what did she eat 
all the time that she was shut up in the 
box ? 
Mother, She was fed with apple pip- 
pins. When the larvae came out, they 
resembled, in shape, the perfect insect, 
except that no wings nor elytra were to be 
seen ; they were also thicker in the mid- 
dle than at the head or tail, and nearly 
white, all but the eyes and teeth, which 
were red. They were so large, that it 
seemed hardly credible that they could 
have been contained in the eggs ; and 
their skin was so transparent, that the 
beating of the artery, which runs along 
the back, was quite visible. They changed 
