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gusting. The fore wings of the earwig are We can vouch for the accuracy of the square, short, leathery pieces, which cover but a above description of the habits of the earvery small portion of the body: the insect is inca- wig, having more than once seen the female pable of folding them in any direction, or of using brooding over her young ones, and pretty them as organs of flight. The hind wings are quite different from the fore wings: they are fold- little white things they are.

We have

never seen the common earwig on the wing, but have frequently captured a smaller insect, belonging to a closely allied genus, when in the act of flying; and it is probable that the earwig itself, from the ample size of its wings, is able to take extensive flights. The beauty of the wings will well repay the observer for the little trouble required to unfold them. On the back of the insect,

ed into a very small compass, and covered by the fore wings, except a small portion which protrudes from beneath them; and, when examined in this position, appear totally useless as organs of flight. When unfolded, the hind wings are remarkably beautiful; they are of ample size, perfectly transparent, displaying prismatic colours when moved in the light; and are intersected by veins which radiate from near the centre to the margin. The shape of these wings, when fully opened, is nearly that of the human ear; and from this cir- between the second and third pairs of legs,

cumstance it seems highly probable that the original name of this insect was ear-wing.

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Earwigs subsist principally on the leaves and flowers of plants, and on fruit; and they are entirely nocturnal insects, retiring by day into dark crevices and corners, where they are screened from observation. The rapidity with which they devour the petals of a flower is remarkable; they

and so on till the head is brought to the fore legs.

will be seen two little scale-like bodies, lying side by side; these are the fore wings, and if they are carefully lifted up with a pin, the flying wings may be seen beneath them, curiously folded up into the smallest possible compass, and these, by the cautious use of the pin, may be opened out to their

clasp the edge of a petal in their fore legs, and, full extent. The forceps at the end of the then, stretching out their head as far as possible, body are said to be used by the earwig in bite out a mouthful, then another mouthful nearer, displaying its wings preparatory to taking This mode of eating is exactly that which is prac- flight; and this supposition is a very probtised by the caterpillars of butterflies and moths; able one. The prevalent idea, that the the part of a petal or leaf is eaten out in a semi- earwig is in the habit of entering people's

circular form, and the head is thrust out to the extreme part after every series of mouthfuls. Pinks, carnations, and dahlias very frequently lose all their beauty from the voracity of these insects. When the time of breeding has arrived, which is generally in the autumn, the female retires for protection to the cracks in the bark of old trees, or the interstices of weather boarding, or under heavy stones on the ground; here she commences laying her eggs. The eggs are usually from twenty to fifty in number: when the female has finished laying them, she does not forsake them, as is the habit of other insects, but sits on them, in the manner of a hen, until they are hatched.

"When the little ones leave the shell, they are instantly very perceptibly larger than the eggs which contained them. They precisely resemble the parent in structure and habit, except that they are without wings; they also differ in color, being perfectly white. The care of the mother does not cease with the hatching of the eggs: the young

ones run after her wherever she moves, and she continues to sit on them and brood over them with the greatest affection for many days. If the young ones are disturbed or scattered, or if the parent is taken away from them, she will, on the first opportunity, collect them again, and brood over them as carefully as before, allowing them to push her about, and cautiously moving one foot after another, for fear of hurting them. How the young ones are fed until the mother's care has ceased, does not appear to have been ascertained; for it is not until they are nearly half grown that they are seen feeding on vegetables with the rest." - Newman, p. 10.

ears, and there doing all sorts of naughty tricks, is entirely without foundation. We believe that its injurious operations are confined to spoiling the florist's choice flowers, and partaking of the gardener's ripest fruits; and that they have not mended their manners in this respect for the last few hundred years, we may infer from a rather amusing passage in old Mouffet's "Theatre of Insects."

"The English women hate them [the earwigs] exceedingly, because of the flowers of clove-gilliflower that they eat and spoil, and they set snares for them thus; they set in the most void places ox-hoofs, hog's-hoofs, or old cast things that are hollow, upon a staff fastened into the ground, and these are easily stuffed with straw; and when by night the savages creep into them to avoid the rain, or hide themselves in the morning, these old cast things, being shook, forth a great multitude fall, and are killed by treading on them."

The beautiful wings of the earwig lead us to make a few remarks upon insect wings in general. In nothing is what Cicero calls "the insatiable variety of Nature" more strikingly manifested than in those beautiful organs of locomotion; and upon their variations Linnæus founded his system of classification, which differs but slightly from that of Aristotle, the first systematist whose works have come down to our times; and with such insects as bees and wasps, in the Linnæan differences are certainly no which those organs are present? The truth improvements upon a mode of classifying is, that the perfect ants, both male and feinsects contrived about two thousand years ago.

A perfect insect is furnished with four wings and six legs; in what must be considered their normal or typical state, the four wings are all of equal size, and all equally capable of being used in flying: these conditions are fulfilled in the typical class, Neuroptera, comprising, among others, the dragon-flies, white ants, Ephemeræ, and Phryganeæ before spoken of; the most beautiful members of this group being perhaps the lace-winged flies, one of which, the elegant Chrysopa perla, has four very large greenish wings, perfectly transparent, and in texture resembling the finest lace; its body is long and slender, and covered with burnished armour, and its eyes large, prominent, and of a brilliant golden green color. The eggs of this, or a very closely allied species, are very curious objects, greatly resembling in appearance some of the delicate fungi. They are of an oval shape, and greenish white color, each being attached to the twig of lilac, or other tree upon which they are deposited, by means of a white stem about an inch long. These stems or footstalks are formed by the parent attaching a drop of glutinous matter to the twig, and then drawing it out to the full length of her own body, the egg being at the end of it. The larva, like that of the lady-birds, is a determined enemy to Aphides, and after having exhausted of their juices the bodies of those pests, it covers itself with the remains of their bodies.

In the Lepidoptera, or the butterfly and moth tribe, we observe the first indications of a deviation from the normal equality of the two pairs of wings; the hind wings being generally smaller than the fore wings, and of a different form, but all are used in flight. The difference in the size of the fore and hind wings of the Lepidoptera is more marked in the moths than in the butterflies.

male, are amply provided with wings, but these bear a small proportion to the whole number of inhabitants of the ant-hill, the majority of which are wingless workers, and are termed neuters, being most probably sterile females; and, unlike the workers of the white-ant establishments, they have attained their ultimate state of development, whereas those of the white ants are in their larva or first active state. In the following extract from Mr. Newman, all the tenants of an establishment of yellow ants are exhibited in action, preparatory to the founding of fresh colonies.

"In the autumn, we frequently observe one of these hillocks closely covered with a living mass of winged ants, which continue to promenade, as it were, over its entire surface; they mount on every plant in the vicinity of their nest, and the laborers (for now the entire population of the nest has turned out) accompany them as closely as possible, following them to the extreme tip of every blade of grass, and when at length those possessed of wings spread them in preparation for flight, the laborers will often hold them back, as if loath to trust them alone, or desirous of sharing the perils of their trackless course. If the temperature is unfa vorable, either from cold or wet, at the period of the grand autumnal production of winged ants, they remain in the nest for several days, until a favorable change in the weather takes place, when the laborers open all the avenues to the exterior, and the winged multitude passes forth at the portals in glittering and iridescent panoply. When the air is warm and still they rise in thou sands, and sailing, or rather floating, on the atmo sphere, leave for ever the scene of their former ex

istence. "Myriads of these flying ants, attracted by the brilliant surface of water illumined by an autumnal sun, rush into the fatal current, and are seen no more: myriads are devoured by birds; and but a small proportion of the immense swarm which left the nest escapes, and lives to found new colonies."-Newman, p. 48.

In the Hymenoptera, the difference in size of the two pairs of wings become still more striking, the fore wings considerably exceeding the hind ones in development; but still she divests herself of her wings, now not only

here all are useful as organs of flight. This order comprises the various families of wasps, bees, ichneumons, ants, &c., but not the white ants, or Termites, which are Neuropterous insects. But, it may be asked, how can ants, which have no wings, be classed

All the winged males quickly perish after pairing, which takes place in the air. The first care of the female, on descending to the ground, is to select a fit spot for the formation of a nest; this being fixed upon, useless, but an incumbrance; this she does by twisting them about over her back, pulling them off with her feet, or cutting them off with her mandibles. This being accomplished she excavates her future dwellingplace, deposits her eggs, attends upon the

larvæ and pupæ, and performs all the du- only office that of protecting the membranaties of a careful ant-mother, in which she is ceous hind wings when not in use, and foldassisted by workers, if, as is sometimes the ed up beneath them. To this class belong case, a few of them should meet with her; the May-bugs, the death-watch, and sextonotherwise she is herself the solitary and un- beetle before mentioned; the Spanish fly, aided foundress of the new colony.

or blister-beetle, the lady-bird, the glowAmazingly large swarms of ants are some-worm, and numbers of others, are also times observed in Autumn, and naturally members of this class. In some of its orexcite the wonder of all unacquainted with ders the wings are only partially or not at the habits of these insects; and even those all developed; and the genus Lampyris, or to whom they are familiar cannot witness glow-worm, affords an example of the fewithout admiration this among other pal- male being entirely without wings, while the pable manifestations of instinct-prompted male appears under the form of a perfect actions, tending to the perpetuation of winged beetle. The luminous property of species. the female is allowed by all naturalists; but

In the Diptera, or tribe of two-winged even at the present day, though the fact has flies, the hind wings attain their minimum been again and again stated, some entomoof development, being reduced, in some or- logists altogether deny the luminosity of the ders, to mere little knobs, seated on a short male; and even among those who are inpedicel, one under each perfect wing; and clined to concede to him the possession of in others even these representatives are so lamps, there are some who state that the small as to be scarcely perceptible. No lights are visible only while the male is at more familiar examples of this class can be rest, and that they disappear when he is adduced than gnats, crane flies, and house flying. We are able fully to confirm the flies: various species of the latter follow testimony of those who state the male glowman, and domesticate themselves with him worm to be luminous, and also to say with wherever he goes; and many of them in confidence that his light is displayed while their larva state, are of the greatest service on the wing; having, on one occasion, had in removing vegetable and animal impuri- the pleasure of seeing them in great numties, which would otherwise accumulate, and bers enter an open window, on a warm, become exceedingly offensive. moist, summer evening, and fly towards the

In the Hemiptera the fore wings begin to candles. They alighted upon the table, on yield in importance to the hinder ones, be- the hand, and on the dress of those near ing of a leathery consistence in their basal the table; the light of each was perfectly portions, with the apical part membranaceous; apparent in the form of two or four small the hind wings are entirely membranous, specks of light, placed towards the extremiand are the chief organs of flight. The ty of the abdomen; and when the winged plant-bugs, to one genus of which order be- rover darted off into the dark part of the longs that nocturnal pest, the bed-bug, room, the points of light were visible for a though destitute of wings, is the typical or- considerable distance as he receded from der of this class, which is separated from view.

the class Orthoptera by certain minute tech- There is one curious peculiarity belong nical characters. In the Orthoptera, the ing to the glow-worm which should be fore wings reach their minimum of de-mentioned; it is luminous in every stage velopment in the order of Forficulites, or of its existence; egg, larva, and pupa, all earwigs, before mentioned; where they are displaying the beautiful radiance although reduced to little, square, leathery coverings not equally with the perfect insect. This to the hinder wings, which, in these, are fact tends to cast a doubt upon the hypo alone used in flying, as is also the case with thesis which would limit the use of the the crickets and mole crickets; in the grasshoppers, locusts, and cockroaches, they are as large as the fore wings, but still partly of the same leathery consistence, and of little use as organs of locomotion.

light to the purpose of enabling the male to discover his partner in the dark.

The extensive family of Aphides or plantlice, offer many peculiarities deserving notice. The various species are some of the

In the Coleoptera, or beetle tribe, the greatest pests to which the gardener, the fore wings completely lose their power of florist, and the farmer are in this country assisting in flight, as well as their mem- exposed. The species, for the most part, branaceous consistence, being of a hard, infest each its particular plant; for example, crustaceous character, and having for their the Aphis of the hop (Aphis Humuli) is not

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found upon the rose-tree; nor that of the day [August 1st, 1785], which was very hot, the bean (A. Fabe) upon the hop. These people of this village [Selborne] were surprised plant-lice often appear in immense numbers by a swarm of Aphides, or smother-flies, which fell in these parts. Those that were walking in and overrun extensive districts in an incre- the street at that juncture found themselves cover. dibly short time. Like White of Selborne, ed with these insects, which settled also on the many a lover of flowers has frequently had hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables to lament the almost instantaneous des- where they alighted. My annuals were discolor. truction of his honeysuckles, roses, and ed with them, and the stalks of a bed of onions other favorite plants; which, "one week the most sweet and lovely objects that the eye could behold, would become the next, the most loathsome, being enveloped in a viscous substance, and loaded with Aphides

or smother-flies!"

were quite coated over for six days after. These armies were then, no doubt, in a state of migra. tion, and shifting their quarters; and might have come, as far as we know, from the great hop plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that day in the easterly quarter. They were observed at the same time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the lane from Farnham to Alton." Letter 53, to Barrington.

The extraordinary rapidity with which these insects will sometimes overrun a hopgarden, a rose-garden, a bean-field, or other collection of plants that may happen Mr. Kirby also records the annoyance to to suit their purposes, affords considerable which he was subjected later in the year by countenance to the popular belief that they coming in contact with one of these migrant are wafted through the air by a peculiar armies in the Isle of Ely; they flew into his haze or " blue mist," attendant upon an eyes, mouth, and nostrils, and completely east wind; and this is sometimes partially covered his dress. Similar appearances have true, so far as the autumnal migrations are not unfrequently been mentioned in the

concerned, but unfortunately for the popu- newspapers.

but unlike the ants, the parent Aphides take no further note of their eggs,

The wonder naturally excited by the almost instantaneous appearance of large swarms of Aphides, will, in great measure, be dissipated, when it is recollected that they are endowed with an amazing fecundity. The rapidity of their production is indeed enormous; nine generations may descend from

lar hypothesis, at that time of the year the Like the winged ants before spoken of, it direct mischief for the season has been is these winged Aphides which are the founddone; the immense swarms of Aphides ers of new colonies, by depositing' their sometimes seen in autumn, having com- eggs in places adapted for their reception; pleted their own share in the work of destruction, have quitted the scene of their former devastations, after depositing the eggs which are to give birth to a fresh brood in the following spring, and most probably quickly perish, though this is a part of their history not yet satisfactorily ascertained. At all events, this seems to agree with facts which have been well established by direct experiment, and with a single Aphis in the course of three months the testimony of authors who have recorded this has been proved by experiment--and their observations upon the economy of each generation has been said to average one these insects. It is to be regretted that hundred individuals; so that Réaumur's White was not as well acquainted with in- calculation, that a single female may be the sects as with birds, or he would most likely progenitor of 5,904,900,000 descendants have left us some valuable information upon during her own life, large as the number is, the economy of these "smother-flies." A is probably within the mark. Professor passage in his "Natural History of Sel- Rennie says that he has counted upwards of borne," well describes the immense num- a thousand Aphides at a time upon a single bers of Aphides occasionally seen on the hop-leaf; supposing, therefore, each of the wing in their autumnal shifting of quarters; thousand to be capable of producing the and the date pretty nearly agrees with Pro- number of descendants mentioned by fessor Rennie's observation, that he had Réaumur, we need not resort to the popular remarked for several successive years that belief in the blight-producing property of the hop-flies disappear soon after Midsum- the east wind to account for the rapidity mer, though the leaves had been literally with which a hop-garden is frequently overcovered with them only a few days pre-run with a pest, against whose ravages no viously. White says:adequate protection has yet been discovered. Whatever degree of qualification we may

" At about three o'clock in the afternoon of this feel inclined to apply to the statements of

the rates of increase of Aphides, it is un- proceed altogether on another system; the young deniable that they do multiply with extreme ones are born exactly like the old ones, but less; rapidity, and their production is attended they stick their beaks through the rind, and begin with circumstances which have no exact drawing sap when only a day old, and go on quietly sucking away for days; and then, all at once, parallel in the animal kingdom. Certain without love, courtship, or matrimony, each inditwo-winged-flies are viviparous, that is, in- vidual begins bringing forth young ones, and constead of depositing eggs, according to the tinues to do so for months, at the rate of from a general law obtaining among insects, their dozen to eighteen every day, and yet continues to

young ones are produced alive, in the form of larvæ or pupe; but whether eggs are deposited, or living young brought forth, neither mode of increase takes place until the parent flies have paired. Aphides, on the contrary, at certain times of the year, are endowed with the remarkable faculty of

the world, seem rather posed as to what to be at,

increase in size all the while; there seem to be no males, no drones, -all bring forth alike. Farly in the year these blights are scattered along the stems, but as soon as the little ones come to light, and commence sap-sucking close to their mother, the spaces get filled up, and the old ones look like giants among the rest, -as here and there an ox in a flock of sheep,-when all the spare room is fillproducing living young without having pre- ed up, and the stalk completely covered. The viously paired; and this is not confined to young ones, on making their first appearance in the original parent, but is also shared by the and stand quietly on the backs of the others for descendants for several generations. Bonnet, an hour or so; then, as if having made up their a French naturalist, took the precaution to minds, they toddle upwards, walking on the backs isolate some of the first-hatched wingless of the whole flock till they arrive at the upper end females of the Aphis inhabiting the oak of the shoot, and then settle themselves quietly tree, as soon as they were excluded from the egg, and he found, that in the course of three months, nine generations were successively produced in this way, although care

was taken that no males should have access

down, as close as possible to the outermost of their friends, and then commence sap-sucking like the rest; the flock by this means extends in length every day, and at last the growing shoot is overtaken by their multitude, and completely covered to the very tip. Towards autumn, however, the to the females. Towards autumn, however, blights undergo a change in their nature, their feet the power of giving birth to a living progeny stick close to the rind, their skin opens along the is lost, and eggs are deposited in the usual back, and a winged blight comes out the summer way, after pairing, doubt because they are better adapted to withstand the rigors of winter than living individuals would be: and from these eggs the race is renewed in the following spring.

no

An accurate observer before quoted, who, under the pseudonyme of Rusticus, used ing from all its own progeny in being winged and

to publish some extremely lively and pleasing descriptions of the every-day proceedings of animals, in a letter on "blights," details the mode of production of Aphides in the following words :

These are generations being generally wingless. male and female, and fly about and enjoy themselves; and, what seems scarcely credible, the winged females lay eggs, and whilst this operation is going on, a solitary, winged blight may be observed on the under-side of the leaves, or on the young shoots, particularly on the hop, and differnearly black, whereas its progeny are green and without wings. These are mysteries which I leave you entomologists to explain. In May, a fly lays a lot of eggs; these eggs hatch and become blights; these blights are viviparous, and that without the usual union of the sexes, and so are their children and grandchildren, -the number of births depending solely on the quantity and quality of their food; at last, as winter approaches, the whole generation, or series of generations, assumes wings, which the parents did not possess, undergoes frequently a change in color, and in the spring, instead of being viviparous, lays eggs." Letters of Rusticus, p. 67.

"I have taken a good deal of pains to find out the birth and parentage of true blights; and for this purpose have watched, day after day, the col. onies of them in my own garden, and single ones which I have kept in-doors, and under tumblers turned upside down; the increase is prodigious; it beats everything of the kind that I have ever seen, heard, or read of. Insects in general come from an egg, then turn to a caterpillar, which does nothing To the singular tribe of blights we are but eat, then to a chrysalis, which does nothing now treating on belongs the hop-fly,-an but sleep, then to a perfect beetle or fly, which insect, which, as Rusticus well says, "has does nothing but increase its kind. But blights more rule over the pockets and tempers of mankind, than any other; its abundance or * We are happy to learn that the delightful papers scarcity being the almost only criterion of a on Natural History by Rusticus have been collected, and are now being printed in a handsome vol- scarcity or abundance in the crops of hops." ume (with illustrations), from which we have been It is scarcely necessary to allude to the kindly allowed to make some quotations. speculative operations which arise from this

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