1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Earwig
EARWIG, an insect belonging to the Forficulidae, a family usually referred to the Orthoptera, but sometimes regarded as typifying a special order, to which the names Dermaptera, Dermatoptera and Euplexoptera have been given, in allusion to certain peculiarities in the structure of the wings in the species that possess them. The front wings are short and horny and when at rest meet without overlapping in the middle line, like the wing-cases of brachelytrous (cocktail) beetles. The hind wings, on the contrary, are for the most part membranous and, when extended, of large size; each consists of two portions, the distal of which, in virtue of the arrangement and jointing of its nervures, is capable of being both doubled up and folded fanwise beneath the proximal, which is partly horny when the wing is tucked away under the front wing-case of the same side. Apart from these characteristics, the most distinctive feature of earwigs is the presence at the end of the abdomen of a pair of pincers which are in reality modified appendages, known as cercopods, and represent the similar limbs of Japyx and the caudal feelers of Campodea and some other insects.
The Forficulidae are almost cosmopolitan; but the various species and genera differ from each other both in structure and size to a comparatively slight extent. The length and armature of the pincers and the presence or absence of wings are perhaps the most important features used by systematists in distinguishing the various kinds. Of particular zoological interest in this connexion is a Ceylonese genus Dyscritina, in which the cercopods are long, many-jointed and filiform during the early stages of growth, and only assume at the last moult the forcipate structure characteristic of the family. The best known earwig is the common European species, Forficula auricularia. This insect is gregarious and nocturnal. It hides by day under stones or the loosened bark of trees or in any crevice or hole sheltered from the light. At night it crawls about in search of food, which consists to a small extent of dead animal or vegetable matter, but principally, as gardeners are aware, of the petals and other parts of flowers of growing shoots and soft ripe fruit. During the winter earwigs lie dormant; but in the early months of the year females with their eggs may be found in the soil, frequently in deserted earthworm burrows. Maternal instincts are well developed, both the eggs, which number about fifty, and the young being carefully brooded and watched over by the parent. Except for the absence of wings, the young are miniature models of the adult. As growth proceeds the integument is periodically cast; and at the final moult the perfect winged insect appears. Males and females are like each other in size, but may be distinguished by the difference in the number of visible abdominal segments, the male having nine and the female seven. In the male, moreover, the pincers are caliper-like and toothed at the base, whereas in the female they are untoothed and only lightly curved at the tip. These differences suggest that the pincers aid in the pairing of the sexes. However that may be, they are known to be used in the folding of the wings; and their importance as weapons of defence is attested by the precision and effect with which they are wielded against assailants like ants.
- (R. I. P.)