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Project Noah Nature School
Forficula auricularia
Adult males are polymorphic in body weight and head width, as well as cercus length and width. The male forceps are very robust and broadened basally with crenulate teeth. The female forceps are about 3 mm long, and are less robust and straighter. The cerci are used during mating, feeding, and self-defense. Females also have tegmina of about 2 mm in length. Third instar or older nymphs that have lost one branch of cerci are capable of regenerating it in form of a straight structure. Males with asymmetrical forceps are called gynandromorphs or hermaphrodites because they resemble females.
You're welcome Jopy! Here's my spotting of an earwig from the Philippines: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/122...
I was a very bad child, I was always trying to mix a new chemical substance and once I got a truly crazy idea to use it poison to make an insecticide for ants cause they were always entering the house (I was 6 years old at the time) I took granny's nail scissors and cut the piece, the top of one claw and that piece jumped and touched my hand so I had a painful blister on my hand for few weeks! I was usually pinched many times by earwig but their venom was never so powerful...probably because the right dosage, when I open the "canal" there was surely more venom going out! ;) so the moral of the story is that they don't just look scary but they can also be scary :)
Spotted on May 29, 2013
Submitted on May 29, 2013
