Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
 

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Calendar

Upcoming Events

National Moth Week was July 19-27, and the Summer 2025 gathering in Louisiana, July 19-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Genus Forficula

Representative Images

earwig - Forficula auricularia - female Forficula auricularia? - Forficula dentata Earwig - Forficula auricularia - male Male Earwig - Forficula dentata - male Western Earwig - Forficula dentata - male European Earwig - Forficula auricularia - male 1466 - Forficula dentata Earwig Dermoptera - Forficula auricularia - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Dermaptera (Earwigs)
Family Forficulidae (Common Earwigs)
Genus Forficula

Explanation of Names

Forficula Linnaeus 1758
forficula 'small pincers'

Numbers

2 spp. in NA, both adventive, 75 spp. total(1)(2)

Range

Cosmopolitan, native to the Old World; widely though spottily distributed across NA

Works Cited

1.Hopkins H., Maehr M.D., Haas F., Lesley S.D. Dermaptera species file. Version 5.0
2.Speciation patterns in the Forficula auricularia species complex: cryptic and not so cryptic taxa across the western Palaearctic
González-Miguéns R., Muñoz-Nozal E., Jiménez-Ruiz Y., Mas-Peinado P., Ghanavi H.R., García-París M. 2020. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 190: 788–823.
Contributed by tom murray on 5 July, 2005 - 8:27pm
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Chuck Entz, v belov, metrioptera, carabid_47
Last updated 22 June, 2025 - 8:40pm

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