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Photo#219005
Little Earwig - Marava pulchella - female

Little Earwig - Marava pulchella - Female
Mobile (Dog River), Mobile County, Alabama, USA
August 27, 2008
Size: ~ 15 mm
I always use Kaufman for initial ID, then Peterson to verify venation & tech description. Earwig classifications in my Peterson (1970 ed.) differ significantly from Kaufman (2007 ed.). To wit, Peterson classifies Anisolabis maritima and L. bidens in Labiduridae. It does not even mention Labidura riparia (the only Labiduridae in North America).

Butterflies and dragonflies have representative organizations for unifying and re-classifing. Is there a "governing body" that has the final say on classifications of other insect orders?

Oh, I almost forgot. Is my earwig a male Labidura riparia?

Moved

Moved
Moved from Earwigs.

Hard to say...
but it would seem to have only 8 abdominal segments- so she's a female. According to the keys, Anisolabididae/Carcinophoridae have either no wings, or wings that don't meet in the middle along their length. Labidura have far more segments in their antennae- and the uniform color on the tegmina would rule them out, anyway.
The main clincher on Forficulidae would be having baggy structures on the second tarsal segments extending under the first ones. This image isn't detailed enough to tell either way. Overall, it reminds me of that family, but I could be totally wrong.
The location is far enough south that a "visitor" from the tropics can't be ruled out.

 
*
this sound and comprehensive analysis of the issue leads us to square one, too :-]

 
OK, how about:

The forceps, at least, look pretty close:

And the color pattern looks pretty close to our live male images:

 
=v=b for V. b.
well, i would take the evidence provided as conclusive, and settle for V. b-pennis.
Chuck -- Thanks for the thorough investigation!

definitely not L. riparia
can it be an Euborellia other than annulipes? never seen one -- and run out of guess[es]... :-]

 
Not Euborellia.
Euborellia are wingless for one thing, and this specimen definitely has wings. We'll ID it eventually. Moving to order page for now.

 
America is home to wingfull Euborelliae
E. cincticollis may be fully alate(1)
(not that i mean to defend my lame call on this one, Eric!)

 
Forficula, maybe?
I've exhausted every resource and still have not found satisfaction. Most earwig searches seem to lead to "exterminators." Anybody know an Earwig Guru who might give this little guy a name?

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