Monday 28 May 2012: Earwig

It's getting so light in the evenings and with this balmy air, I almost forgot I've got to go back to work.

This is a common earwig, Forficula auricularia. It's common name comes from an old wives tale that warned that these insects might crawl into human ears to lay their eggs. I can assure you that the story is a fallacy. They do like to hide in tight crevices but, are no more likely to crawl into an ear than any other insect, purely by accident.

If you look in large you will see why this one is doing gymnastics. They are omnivorous and will eat just about anything they can find. In this case he is helping me by munching up a few green fly.

Having spent a couple of days catching up in the house and garden, I hope I will be able to start catching up on journals again tomorrow. Thank you all for your following and comments. I've been seeing most of your wonderful journals but have had no time to reply. Back tomorrow!

• Canon EOS 7D:
• f/3.5:
• 1/160":
• 100.0mm:
• ISO 200

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