he were to be more
observant.
Black though things
seem against the ear-
wig, I am inclined to
think that this insect
has been sadly
maligned. It is true
that it will occasion-
ally damage the petals
of flowers, but a series
of night investigations
will, I think, con-
clusively prove that
much of the damage
attributed to it is
really the work of
night - feeding cater-
pillars and slugs.
Damaged dahlia
blooms are a parti-
cular grievance of the
earwigs, but captive
enclosed with various
flowers and leaves, including dahlia flowers,
left the dahlias quite untouched, while
they ate to shreds dandelion leaves, also
enclosed. The dahlia bloom is, I think,
favoured by the earwig more on account
of the shelter it provides than as a
food plant ; various species of moth larvae
of night-feeding habits play serious havoc
amongst such blooms ; also, many of the
minute perforations found in the petals of
flowers such as phloxes, chrysanthemums,
wallflowers, etc., are the work of tiny flies
with biting mouth-parts which operate
throughout the day ; but the earwig gets all
the blame.
408
CURIOSITIES OF INSECT LIFE
Sixteen
days later
she was ex-
citedly pak-
ing with her
fore-legs at
a hole in the
g p o u n d
c P o w d e d
with tiny
E apwigs .
The feet of
hep hind paip
of legs are
seen to be
encased with
dpied mud
''boxing
gloves " to
defend hep
young.
May 9th.
When a
fortnight
old the
baby Eap-
wig moults
i t s skin,
ehang ing
in about
oneminute
to a silvery
white in-
sect. Its
cast skin
is seen be-
hind it.
May 23rd.
Even al-
lowing that
the earwig
is occasion-
ally des-
tructive,
there is
another side to its story.
It is one of nature's
scavengers, and just
how much good it does
amongst the plants in
our gardens is difficult
to estimate. The night-
roaming parties move up
and down amongst the
foliage and flowers, stopping here and
there to remove particles of decaying
matter ; spots of sugary materials,
and pollen fallen from the flowers on
to the leaves ; the bodies of dead
insects ; and other refuse, all of which,
if left, would set up colonies of
bacteria, fungi pests, moulds, etc.
They provide the army of cleaners
which appear after the banquet, when
the gaudily-attired guests of the day
have departed, to clear up the litter
in readiness for the next day's feast-
ing. The earwig is one of the most
prolific insects in the garden, much
more so than in the wild, because
amongst the unhealthy
plants under cultivation
the services of the sani-
tary inspector are much
more needed than
amongst the native and
more hardy plants.
Dissections of earwigs
under the microscope
show their stomachs to
be full with aphides,
thrips, caterpillars, small
slugs, and
the rem-
nants of the
egg - shells
of many
i n j u r i o us
insects; and
although
they also in-
dulge in a
vege tarian
diet, that
is probably
A second
batch of eggs
was laid when
the young
w e P e nearly
half-g rown ;
but that did
not prevent
the young
from petupn-
ing to the
nest. J une
3pd.
Tv/o days latep one of the family moulted its second
skin, the next stage in development. June 5th.
409
The mother Earwig doing her best to hide
her* second batch of eggs in the soil, and
to give attention to members of her first
family. June 5th.
Just before the third moult the young Ear-
wig begins to develop wing-eases, as shown
in the lowermost example ; the others are
not auite so advanced. June 17th.
After the third moult the Earwig increases
in size, and once more assumes a silvery
white colour. June 20th.
The mother Earwig with her third batch
of eggs. June 25th.
CURIOSITIES OF INSECT LIFE
the outcome of too effectual scavenging
work, together with their increasing num-
bers, having produced a shortage of their
more normal food supplies ; to which must
be added temptations in the form of delicate
plant tissues with which under natural con-
ditions they would be unlikely to meet. If I
had to classify the earwig I should without
any hesitation place it amongst the useful
insects of the garden, and that in spite of
any local damage that may occasionally be
proved against it ; we must recognize, too,
that every labourer in the garden is worthy
of his hire.
Then there is the libellous implication
that the earwig enters and penetrates the
human ear. If an earwig ever did enter a
human ear, it would be for shelter, just as
it might crawl into the folded petals of a
flower, or the gardener's tree-pot traps ;
and any person so invaded would surely
have to be asleep. It would, however, be a
very enterprising earwig that would attempt
to penetrate the ear, and it would very soon
desist, as it could certainly not find any-
thing attractive in that direction. The
whole idea is an ancient superstition
founded probably on the name, which is
said to have been originally " ear- wing "
from the resemblance that the earwig's wing
bears to the human ear. It is a curious
mistake, which seems to have caused an
abiding, unreasoning aversion to this insect.
In the first photograph the mother
earwig is seen tenderly arranging her batch
of eggs, and placing them in a hollow in the
ground, so that she can cover them with the
foreparts of her body. The mating appears
to take place quite late in the year, even in
December, and afterwards the female ear-
wig hibernates in sheltered crevices, be-
neath stones, or between old wood-work.
Towards the end of March she burrows into
the soil, and soon afterwards deposits from
forty to sixty pearly-hued eggs. If she is
disturbed and her eggs scattered, she will
rapidly gather them together again, and
convey them beneath the soil. Her eggs
are slightly adhesive, and by holding one in
her mandibles she can often carry a dozen
or more together, collecting the scattered
ones later. Perhaps an hour afterwards she
will be found head downwards, half buried
in the soil, guarding her eggs, only her tail
pincers projecting, like a pair of formidable
biting jaws at the mouth of her burrow.
That, I think, is the chief function of the
tail pincers, as any inquisitive organism
that approaches too near immediately
receives a sudden thrust from these weapons,
followed by a sharp pinch should it be too
persistent.
Since so little was known of the early
stages of the earwig, I isolated the mother
insect shown in the first photograph together
At the end of the first week in July some
of the Earwigs hatched on May 9th had
reached maturity. On the right two adult
insects are seen. Beneath them is one which
has yet to make its final moult, as its short
wing-covers show. July 7th.
with her eggs, and kept her under close
observation. She was continually moving
her eggs to different parts of the soil, where
it was more moist, or more dry, best to suit
their development. One morning, sixteen
days later, I found that, during the night,
her forty-eight eggs had disappeared, and
she was very excitedly raking with her fore-
legs at a hole in the ground crowded with
tiny earwigs, which immediately swarmed
amongst the soil she was turning over.
Sometimes one would stray from the hole
as one is seen doing in the photograph at
the top of page 409 but it would soon
return, as they are gregarious feeders.
411
THE PflGEANT OF NATURE
This maternal care in insect life is very
remarkable, as they rarely do more than de-
posit their eggs in suitable situations for their
development ; although in some cases, as in
bees and wasps, they add a supply of food
material for the grub when it hatches from
the egg. Here, however, we have the true
maternal instinct developed to a very high
The fourth, and last, moulting of the skin is
an astonishing performance. Here the Ear-
wig is seen on a dandelion leaf pushing off its
last skin and withdrawing its snowy white
body, legs and long-jointed feelers ; but it
has jet-black eyes. July 10th.
degree, and far in advance of that exhibited
by any other British insect.
Still more wonders were to follow.
In the top illustration on page 409 it will
be seen that the feet of her hind pair of
legs are enveloped in well-shaped, hardened
masses of mud. Just how these were formed
I was never able to observe, but it was no
accidental accumulation, for her first and
second pairs of legs, with which she raked
the soil, never collected such masses. When
she moved over the surface of the soil she
dragged these mud-laden feet behind her,
not using them for walking. What, then,
was their function ?
When she was tending her young in the
hole one of these mud-covered feet rested
on each side of her elevated tail pincers,
and, when I touched the latter, she adopted
the usual device of a prod with those organs,
but a second touch brought her " boxing
glove " on that side into play with a savage
kick that would have been quite sufficient
to dissuade any ground-beetle larva, or
similar foe, from intruding its nose any
farther in that direction. A day or two
later I noticed that one of her hind-feet had
lost its mass of solidified mud, and the fol-
lowing morning it had been replaced with
a new covering ; but when the young were
about a week old she entirely disposed of
these weapons.
When a fortnight old, each little earwig,
one by one, moves a little distance away from
the crowded nest while it moults its skin,
changing in about one minute to a silvery
white colour, which gradually tones until
at the end of an hour it assumed the
ordinary dirty grey, or blackish, colour.
After moulting, it immediately returns
to the nest.
The young were hatched on May Qth,
and on June 2nd they still crowded round
their mother while she conducted them
to new feeding grounds. It was then that
their scavenging work below ground became
apparent ; all kinds of decaying vegetable
and animal substances were consumed, and
over-ripe squashed fruit was eagerly de-
voured. What the tiny earwigs feed on
amongst the plain soil just after hatching
is difficult to understand, probably it may be
some bacteria, or minute particles of organic
materials which they discover there.
On the morning of June 3rd another
surprise awaited me, for, on looking at
the nest, I found another batch of eggs had
been deposited, numbering thirty-eight in
all, amongst which some of the now
nearly half-grown young were resting, the
mother insect being then away from the
nest trying to find another place in which
to hide her new batch of eggs away from her
half-grown young, as I discovered later.
Eventually the mother returned to the
nest, and, apparently, she did not make any
objection to her young crowding around her
and her newly-acquired eggs. She con-
tinually caressed them with her feelers, and
promptly warned them of approaching
danger, bringing to a sudden halt the activi-
ties of the whole group, as she had always
dI2
CURIOSITIES OF IHSECT LIFE
When the east skin reaches the tail-end,
the tail pincers manipulate it until it is
discarded ; then
done ; a most astonishing action, seeing that
she can touch only a few of them ; probably
the individuals touched convey the alarm
to those beneath them.
Two days later still (June 5th), yet another
surprise awaited me. On top of the eggs
and half-grown young a very large silvery
white individual appeared. This was the
first of the young to make its second moult
the next step in its development.
Presently the mother insect returned and
proceeded to arrange and hide her eggs,
and there she was, doing her best to cover
them, and at the same time give attention
to those members of her family which occa-
sionally crowded round her (page 410).
The following day there was a greater
surprise than ever in store, for the whole
batch of eggs had disappeared excepting
the parts of two broken shells ; yet the
mother earwig was, as usual, tending her
rapidly-growing young. As both she and
her offspring were enclosed in a close-fitting
metal case with a glass covering, to which
no foe could possibly gain access, there was
only one explanation her young family
had eaten the eggs during the night. That
was unfortunate, because it would have been
interesting to have seen if the second batch
of eggs had proved fertile, as no mature
male insect could possibly have reached her.
There were only the immature males of her
own family, which were sexually imperfect.
It is quite probable that the eggs would have
produced a second family, for such instances
of apparently unfertilized eggs producing
offspring is the phenomenon known as
parthenogenesis, which is familiar in some
groups of insects ; but in this case it had to
be proved.
Now we realize why the mother earwig
so carefully guards her eggs. Instinct
evidently did not guide her to drive off her
own offspring, as it would in the case of
other normal intruders seeking her eggs.
Also, we incidentally learn that young ear-
wigs devour insects' eggs which they find
below ground even though they may be
those of their own species.
Had the mother insect been free, she
would doubtless have left her growing family
when she was about to deposit her second
batch of eggs, as its members were then
well able to fend for themselves, and in that
the ghost-like Earwig, nearly half as large
again, rushes joyfully back to rejoin its
relatives, who have yet to undergo their
final change.
413
THE PAGEAttT OF NATURE
On July 10th the mother Earwig's third
batch of eggs commenced to hatch out
another family of silver-white Earwigs.
manner she would have checked the canni-
balistic traits of her offspring. Probably
those mud-laden hind-feet, which, it will be
remembered, were developed during the
hatching of the eggs period, may be the
means of protection from egg-raiding par-
ties of the young of her own species.
By the middle of June the young earwigs
are nearly ready for their third moult ; and
with each shedding of a skin a big advance
in development is made : for there is no
caterpillar and chrysalis stages in the case
of the earwig. In the second photograph on
page 410 a group of them is shown, for they
now congregated in small groups in various
areas of the soil and beneath stones ; neither
could they associate with their mother, as I
had removed her into new quarters where
she was alone.
Just before the third moult takes place,
the developing earwig begins to assume the
form of the adult imsect, with rudimentary
wing cases. The lowermost earwig in
the photograph just referred to has attained
that stage, but those round it are not yet
quite so advanced.
It was on June zoth when the first of the
family moulted its third skin, and it is
shown in the lower left-hand photograph on
page 410. It now more nearly resembles
the parent insect, and once again it is
silvery white, but only for a short period,
as it quickly changes to the amber brown
colour of the full-grown insect.
On June 25th I found the mother earwig,
whom I had placed in isolation, busy with
a third batch of eggs (page 410), but this
time they numbered only twenty-six. Since
she now had no young to disturb her, here
was an opportunity to see if these successive
batches of eggs produced without the inter-
vention of the male insect would prove
fertile.
Some of the earwigs hatched on May Qth
reached maturity on July yth, when they
made their fourth and final moulting of
their skins. On page 411 several of the
fully-developed insects are shown ; but the
lowermost one has yet to cast its last skin,
as indicated by its smaller wing-covers.
The final moulting is a most astonishing
performance. An individual such as that
shown lowermost on page 411 leaves its
fellows and selects some undisturbed spot.
In the example photographed it preferred
the surface of a dandelion leaf which was
resting on the ground. By some sudden
muscular contraction the skin at the thorax
portion, just behind the head, is caused to
split, and through the opening immediately
appears the head of a snowy white earwig
with jet-black eyes. In a moment or two
it is seen to be withdrawing its legs and long-
jointed antennae, as shown on page 412, its
legs pushing off its old clothes until they
reach the tail pincers, which organs after-
wards manipulate the shrunken skin on
their own account (page 413), eventually
The next day she was busy at her bur-
row seeking food for a crowd of baby
Earwigs.
414
CURIOSITIES OF INSECT LIFE
casting it aside ; then the ghost - like
earwig rushes joyfully back to rejoin its
relatives (page 413), being nearly half as
large again as it was perhaps only a minute
previously.
It has now attained the adult form, and
in the course of an hour it becomes quite an
ordinary earwig clothed in a suit
of deep, glossy amber colour. The
insect whose emergence from its
final skin we have witnessed is
seen to have broad calliper-shaped
pincers, toothed at their base,
differing in this way from the
mother insect. These character-
istics indicate that it is a male.
On July Qth the mother earwig
showed great agitation when I
approached her, and she pro-
ceeded to bury her eggs more
deeply. Surely instinct would
not guide her wrongly to take so
much care of unfertilized eggs ? It
was now fourteen days since she
laid this third batch of eggs, so
they should soon hatch out their
young, if they were going to.
Her motherly instinct proved
correct. The next day I wit-
nessed the emerging of the young
brood. She was head down-
wards in her burrow, and the
young earwigs were crawling out
around her body, all silvery white
(page 414) a detail which I had
failed to notice in her first family.
So that the earwig is silvery white
on leaving the egg, and at each
of its four moultings. These
details, with those of the succes-
sive batches of parthenogenetic
eggs, and its mud-laden feet, are, I think,
facts new to entomological science. The
next morning the mother insect was busy at
her burrow, seeking food for a crowd of
baby earwigs (page 414).
In the final photograph a specimen of the
common earwig (Forficula auricularia) is
displayed with wing-cases removed to show
its expanded wings. In spite of the fact
that it possesses such large and handsome
wings, I am inclined to think that they are
never once used for flight. It apparently
presents an instance of an insect which is
giving up flying and taking to crawling
habits, in consequence of which its wings
are gradually losing their function. Even
\vhen forced to expand its wings, it seems
incapable of flight, and cannot replace them
beneath its wing-covers without the assist-
ance of its tail forceps.
The lesser earwig (Labia minor), an insect
The Common Earwig (Forficula auricularia} with ex-
panded wings organs it never uses for flight
(magnified).
about half the size of the common species,
is quite a good flyer, of daylight habits ;
while another British species occasionally
met with (Forficula lesnei) is a wingless
form. The common species is probably
an intermediate type which was once a good
flyer, but which is now in the process of
changing to a wingless species.
The mother insect reared her third family
quite successfully, and died of old age on
September iQth. She was probably just
over twelve months old, and may therefore
be described as a comparatively long-lived
insect, as insects go.
4*5
Trees and Their Life Story
I. 3. 2.
PERFECT AND COMPLETE FLOWERS-HERMAPHRODITE-IN WHICH ARE BOTH MALE
AND FEMALE ELEMENTS, i.e. STAMENS AND SEED - CASE CONTAINING IMMATURE
SEEDS.
1. A Flower of the Buttercup type in which the seed-cases with their projecting stigmas
are separate. 2. A Poppy ; here there is one central seed-case containing many seeds.
3. Looking down on a Poppy as a bee does. In the centre is the big seed-case with its
flat receptive top or stigma a platform for insect visitors. Round it are ranged the
stamens. Outside these is the scarlet petal dress, and at the back (unseen) are the
green sepals.
5.-SEX AND TREE FLOWERS
By G. CLARKE NUTTALL, B.Sc.
With photographs by the Author
THE flower is the sum of the plant's
arrangements for the reproduction
of its kind. Whatever other role
that flower may be supposed to ^play in
Nature this is its primary one the one for
which it exists. Its beauty, its sweetness,
its fragrance, all are there solely to further
the production of posterity.
In both plants and animals good off-
spring is a matter of good and suitable
breeding. How, then, does the plant act
in this matter ? Consider first a flower of
the simplest construction say, a buttercup.
In the very centre are the immature seeds-
to-be, each in its own distinct little seed-
case with a receptive tip or stigma on top ;
this represents, of course, the female
element of the flower. (In most flowers,
however, the separate seed-cases are fused to
make one which may have several chambers.)
Around this stand numerous yellow stamens
whose heads, or anthers, are boxes filled
with pollen dust the male element. These
two are the essential organs of a flower. In
a ring outside are ranged the golden bur-
nished petals ; these are the gay dress of the
flower put on to beautify and attract, as
are all gay dresses, and at the base of each
is a tiny sac of nectar to add the lure of
sweetness to the call of beauty. Behind the
petals, outside all. is the green calyx cup
which protects and holds the flower to-
416
TREES AttD THEIR LIFE STORY
gether. The main
object of every
plant is to get
some of the male
element the
p o 1 1 e n t r a n s -
ferred to the im-
mature seeds in
the seed-case so
that it may ferti-
lize and render
them capable of
developing into
new plants. As a
rule it is better
that the pollen
should not fertilize
the stigma of its
own flower ; more
vigorous seeds are
produced if that
pollen comes from
another flower,
perferably from a
flower on another
plant. It is to bring
about this " cross-
fertilization " that
we find in plant
life a realm of the
mechanism, where often
delicately balanced with
deviation by a hair's breadth
whole out of gear. Even
at which a flower droops its
of vital importance in the
Male (a) and female
flowers (b) of the Hazel.
The male will wither
and fall ; the female will
become a little group
of nuts.
most intricate
one part is so
another that
may put the
the angle
head may be
interests of posterity.
More than a third of the flowering plants
of the world are like the buttercup in having
both stamens and seed-case, that is both
male and female elements, in the same flower,
being, in fact, " hermaphrodite " flowers.
It is in these flowers that the most skilful
scheming is necessary to prevent, or at any
rate discourage, self-fertilization. In-and-in
breeding practically always seems to tend to
degeneracy, and an occasional cross, at
least, is required to maintain the strain at its
best level. It is here that the animal and
the insect worlds, particularly the latter,
are called in by means of colour, scent and
honey to assist.
To deal in any comprehensive way with
these schemes would fill many volumes;
but we may turn to another large group of
plants where the difficulty has been met in a
very drastic way, and self-fertilization made
impossible by the separation of the sexes in
different flowers. Here we get male flowers
on the one hand and female flowers on the
other, and the attribute of sex stands out
prominently in a way that it does not in
the perfect and complete flower. Naturally
it involves a great difference in the appearance
of the two kinds of flowers. When a plant
bears complete flowers all its flowers are
alike, every buttercup, every poppy, every
lime flower is as like as two pins to every
other one of its own kind, but between the
flowers of opposite sex of the same plant
there is often not the slightest resemblance.
Take the hazel, for example. What could
be more unlike the drooping male catkins
" twisted gold," Whittier called them,
" lambs' tails," say the children than the
tiny female flowers each with a fairy red
brush on the top. The male catkin is built
up of minute three-lobed scales set in spirals
on a central axis, and may be two to three
inches in length. Under each scale are four
stamens so
minute that
they can
hardly be
seen; the
head of each
is filled with
floury pol-
len. If one
shakes a
catkin over a sheet of white
paper one can see the
enormous amount of pollen