These insects are slender in form, with somewhat rounded heads bearing two large facetted eyes, but no ocelli; and long slender antennae composed of short oval joints. The elytra, very short, usually not extending beyond the hind margin of the thorax, cover the hind wings when at rest. These hind wings are short but broad, somewhat resembling a human ear when expanded for flight, but neatly folded up beneath the abbreviated elytra at other times. In many groups however both elytra and wings are absent, the insects trusting to their legs and powers of burrowing to get out of danger, and even those with well developed wings seldom use them. The thorax is narrow; the legs stout, well adapted both for digging and running; and the abdomen, tapering to the extremity, terminates in a pair of callipers or pincer-like processes, sometimes curved and toothed into remarkable shapes. It is the possession of these curious anal appendages that has led to the earwig being popularly credited with all kinds of evil propensities; but though they certainly look very formidable they can only give one’s finger a harmless pinch if handled carelessly, and are otherwise perfectly harmless. [Illustration: =Fig. 3.=--_Labidura truncata_ (Kirby). The common Earwig found in the sand along river banks. (Original W. B. Gurney.)] Earwigs are met with chiefly in damp situations; some of the smaller ones can be collected by pulling the rotten bark off dead trees; others are to be found under stones or logs; and in summer time many will be found in burrows in the damp sand on the water’s edge after the manner of mole crickets. In point of numbers this is not a large family, only about 520 species being described from all parts of the world; and only about 20 from Australia, so that they are poorly represented in this country. The Genus _Labidura_ contains 15 described species from all parts of the world; _Labidura riparia_, a cosmopolitan species ranging from Europe to Asia and Africa does not reach Australia; but we have a typical species in _Labidura truncata_, which has similar habits, living in burrows in the sand along the edges of lagoons and creeks. It measures an inch in length, and is of a general reddish brown tint mottled with dull yellow; and the dorsal segments of the abdomen are deeply barred with reddish black almost confluent down the centre. The head is large; the prothorax small, with the elytra and wings well developed; the abdomen, rather narrow at the base, is broadest behind the large callipers, which are slender, furnished with two blunt teeth on the inner edge and meet at the extremities. It differs from _L. ripara_ in having the apical edge of the last abdominal segment truncate, and not scalloped as in the former.