St. Helena earwig

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iSt. Helena earwig

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Division:	Rhopalocera
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Dermaptera
Family:	Labiduridae
Genus:	Labidura
Species:	L. herculeana

Binomial name

Labidura herculeana
(Fabricius, 1798)

The St. Helena earwig is a species of earwig that lives (or lived) on the remote island of St. Helena, in the central Atlantic Ocean. It may grow up to 84 mm (3.3 inches) long.

Alternative names include St. Helena striped earwig and St. Helena giant earwig. A nickname that has been adopted is "Dodo of the Dermaptera", since it is endemic and lived on a small oceanic island, like the dodo. Its predators include St. Helena Hoopoes (Upupa antaios), mice, and introduced rats.

Diet: Probably herbivorous or weakly omnivorous.
Distribution: Horse Point Plain, Prosperous Bay Plain and the Eastern Arid Area, St. Helena, UK
Habitat: Plain areas, gumwood forests, and seabird colonies in rocky places.
Reason for extinction: Probably habitat loss, introduced mice and rats, introduced centipede (Scolopendra morsitans), cats, and goats, collectors, and sparrows.
Appearance: Shiny black with reddish legs, short elytra and hind wings absent.

This was the world's largest earwig. It lived in deep burrows, coming out only at night after rains. It is thought to be extinct because there were unsuccessful searches in 1988, and 1993, and 2003. This species was first discovered by Danish entomologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1798. It lived mostly in the EAA, the Eastern Arid Area. It somehow got confounded with the smaller and more familiar shore earwig Labidura riparia, and received no more attention from science. It was forgotten until it was rediscovered in 1962 when two ornithologists, Douglas Dorward and Philip Ashmole, searching for bird bones found some enormous dry tail pincers. They were given to zoologist Arthur Loveridge who confirmed they belonged to a form of huge earwig. They were later studied by a number of other zoologists. They all thought it was a whole new species, never known to science previously. However, it might still survive in its remote location.

It has entered the folklore of St. Helena. On February 9, 1988, The Independent ran a story about a rescue mission to save it. In the article a scientist from London Zoo said that the earwigs "had an attractive family life-style... The females make extremely good mothers." This story was also in this article, called "Over there, the topics ring all sorts of bells", published February 18, 1988. It says:

"On a more cheerful note, the front page of the Independent - one of Britain's newest and best papers - carries a story of great import. An expedition is being mounted to save an endangered species from extinction. London Zoo has already pledged (ps)3,000 to the cause. And the issue? No, not whales, crocodiles, whooping cranes or the Giant Panda - but the Giant Earwig of St. Helena. No kidding, an earwig which was last seen in 1967, on the front page of the Independent] "It's quite difficult to get people interested in earwigs," said Dave Clark of London Zoo who is leading the rescue mission to St. Helena. "The females make extremely good mothers . . . I love all insects, particularly earwigs. They're fascinating." Eat your heart out, Greenpeace."

In April 1995 another specimen was found. The specimen proved that the earwigs did not only live in gumwood forests, before seabirds were wiped out by introduced predators, they lived in seabird colonies in rocky places. A software package named CERCI was named after it. CERCI is a species information and record keeping software. Cerci refers to the name of the pincer of an earwig.

The earwig has not been seen alive since 1967. It is in category CR B1+2a ver 2.3 (1994) in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. On November 27, 2005, articles were published about a plan for an airport in St. Helena. However, scientists insisted on not building it since it could kill lots of species, especially the giant earwig, if it still exists.

[edit] References

World Conservation Monitoring Centre (1996). Labidura herculeana. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Listed as Critically Endangered (CR B1+2a v2.3)
Shucker, Karl. The Lost Ark. Harper Collins Publisher, 1993. 235-236.