Species Euborellia cincticollis - African Earwig

Classification · Explanation of Names · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Season · Remarks · Print References · Works Cited

Labia Genus Earwig? - Euborellia cincticollis

Euborellia - Euborellia cincticollis - male

African Earwig - Euborellia cincticollis

Elegant little earwigs - Euborellia cincticollis

Ring-legged....But not. - Euborellia cincticollis

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Dermaptera (Earwigs)

Family Anisolabididae

Genus Euborellia

Species cincticollis (African Earwig)

Explanation of Names

Euborellia cincticollis (Gerstäcker 1883)

cincticollis = 'with margined neck'

Size

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

Identification

It would seem that E. cincticollis can be anything between completely wingless (not even rudimentary?) and fully winged in both sexes.

There are some instances of winged E. annulipes in older literature but no known specimen, so these are probably misidentifications and annulipes is assumed to be always wingless with rudimentary flaps on the locations of the wings only.

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. On annulipes it would usually be 2-3 pale segments (sometimes 1) located further down around segs. 11-13.

Please note that nymphs have different counts of antennal segments, depending on stadium. (Arp, BG comment, 2019), see also Langston & Powell (1975)(1)

Range

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

Habitat

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

Season

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

Remarks

wingless to fully winged ("alary polymorphism")(1)

earliest record in our area: CA 1946, & AZ 1949(1)

Print References

Hubbell, T.H., and H.S. Wallace 1955. The earwigs Euborellia cincticollis and E. anntilipes in Arizona. Entomol. News 66(2): 42.

Works Cited

1.	The Earwigs of California (Order Dermaptera) R.L. Langston & J.A. Powell. 1975. Bull. Calif. Insect Surv. 20: 1-25.

2.	Choate P. M. () The order Dermaptera (earwigs) in Florida and the United States

Contributed by Jim McClarin on 28 November, 2009 - 8:05am
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Chuck Entz, Mike Quinn, v belov
Last updated 22 January, 2019 - 4:14pm

Disclaimer: Dedicated naturalists volunteer their time and resources here to provide this service. We strive to provide accurate information, but we are mostly just amateurs attempting to make sense of a diverse natural world. If you need expert professional advice, contact your local extension office.

Contributors own the copyright to and are solely responsible for contributed content.
Click the contributor's name for licensing and usage information.
Everything else copyright © 2003-2020 Iowa State University, unless otherwise noted.

Bugguide is hosted by:

Printer Friendly Version