Species Euborellia cincticollis - African Earwig

Euborellia cincticollis (Gerstäcker 1883)

length including forceps rarely over 10-15 mm(1)

There are mentions of winged E. annulipes in older literature (but no known specimen), likely based on misidentifications; annulipes is assumed to be always wingless.

Images of wingless cincticollis can be hard to separate from annulipes, especially when the specimen doesn't have pale rings in the antennae (which occurs frequently in both species) but adult annulipes have 15-16 antennal segments (rarely 14 or 17), whereas cincticollis has 17-20 segments.

If there is a pale ring, in cincticollis it will often be a single pale segment, sometimes two around segment 15-16. In annulipes it would usually be 2-3 pale segments (sometimes 1) located further down around segs. 11-13. NB: nymphs have different antennomere counts, depending on instar. (Arp, BG comment, 2019), see also Langston & Powell (1975)(1)

Native to w. and equatorial Africa; established in AZ, CA(1)(2), and TX (BG data)

arid(1) to semi-arid areas (BG data)

mid-July to late September at Davis, CA per light trap data(1)

Hubbell T.H., Wallace H.S. (1955) The earwigs Euborellia cincticollis and E. annulipes in Arizona. Entomol. News 66: 42.