Adults can use the cerci in defense, twisting the abdomen forward over the head or sideways to engage an enemy, often another earwig. Earwigs are nocturnal, spending the day hidden under leaf debris, in cracks and crevices, and in other dark locations.

In polling by the Pew Research Center in November 2008, fully half the respondents thought the two parties would cooperate more in the coming year, versus only 36 percent who thought the climate would grow more adversarial.

The same interviewing problem is bound to crop up again in the mail, which regularly brings requests for written replies to lengthy questionnaires. And it will certainly surface in April, when I'm scheduled to appear as GoH at the Cinecon in Australia. Far be it for me to complain about the trip; I feel it's my duty to go, if only to heal the breach in international relations caused by Tucker's visit some years ago. But there will be fan interviews and press interviews and -- if Tucker did as much damage as I suspect -- there may even be questions asked in Parliament.

About 20 per cent produce hypophylls, or rudimentary leaves, and most of these soon die without producing any ordinary leaves.