LIBRARY

DERMAPTERA 143
insects. The adults fly readily and are able to fold and unfold the wings rapidly.
I t is occasionally taken in California.
Fatuily FORFICULIDlE Burr 1907 (For'fi-cu'li-dre, from Latin jorjicufa, a pair
of small shears or scissors).
This is an important large family of earwigs which contains the most highly
developed speCies and some of the most widely distributed and destructive
forms. The body is convex, cylindrical, or strongly depressed; the antennre
have 12 to 15 segments, the fourth segment equal to or shorter than the third;
winged or apterous but wings usually present; legs short and somewhat compressed;
abdomen usually parallel-sided but may be dilated in the middle or
posteriorly; forceps flat or cylindrical; well represented in the Pahearctic region.
In this family is Lo be found the well-known European earwig, Forjicula
auricularia Linnaous (Figs. 53-58), which is the most widely distributed species
in the subtropical and temperate regions of the world and which is often a very
troublesome household and garden pest that is known to oCCur in Europe, South
Africa, Australia. New Zealand, South America, and North America. It is a
shining, brown and black, winged species, 11-15 mm. long, which lives in moist
or rather dry conditions. part.icularly in centers of population where it is likely
to breed in enormous numbers in garbage dumps, manure piles, lawn cuttings,
leaves, and decayed vegetation or debris of any kind. The pearly-white oval
eggs are laid in small masses of from 10 to 25 in the wet soil or in or under debris,
usually in mid-winter in the warmer sections and in early spring in the colder
limits of its distribution. There is but one generation a year. This species has
widely varied feeding habits. In the Mediterranean region it. appears to be
largely predacious on fly maggots and other scavengers and is considered beneficial,
while in the cooler areas it still seems to prefer a vegetable diet and attacks
many kinds of growing plants although it feeds to a considerable degree
upon animal matter, both dead and alive. It is perhaps most. noxious as a pest
in households, where its nocturnal habits are similar to those of cockroaches.
SELECTED REFERENCES
BLATCHLEY, W. S., Orthoptera of northeastern America, pp. 1-784, Nature Pub. Co.,
Indianapolis, 1920.
BORMANS, A. DE, "Dennaptera," Biologia Cantrali-Americana. Zoologia. Orthoptera,
1: 1-12, pIs. 1-2, 1893.
BORMANS, A. DE, and H. KRAUSS, "Forficulidre and Hemimeridre," Das Tierreich 11:
1-142,47 figs., 1900.
BRUES, C. T., and A. L. MELANDER, "Classification of Insects," BHll. Mus. Compo Zool.
Harvard Col., pp. 1-672, 1121 figs., 1932.
BURR, M., "Dennaptera," Fauna of British India, pp. xviii + 217, 16 figs., 10 pis.,
Taylor and Francis, London, 1910.
--, "Dermaptera," Gen. Insectorum 122: 1-112, 9 pIs., 1911.
--, "A New Species of Arixenia (Dermaptera)," Ent. Mthly. Mag. (2) 28: 105-106,
1912.