St. Helena earwig

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St. Helena earwig

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 (Labidura herculeana) 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. It is possibly extinct due to habitat loss, introduced mice and rats, an introduced centipede (Scolopendra morsitans), cats, and goats, collectors, and sparrows. However, it might still survive in its remote location.

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 the now extinct Giant Hoopoe (Upupa antaios) and introduced mice and rats.

The St. Helena Earwig was shiny black with reddish legs, short elytra, and no hind wings. The earwig was probably herbivorous, or possibly weakly omnivorous. It was endemic to St. Helena and was found on the Horse Point Plain, Prosperous Bay Plain, and the Eastern Arid Area of the island. It is known to have lived in plain areas, gumwood forests, and seabird colonies in rocky places.

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 for the species in 1988, and 1993, and 2003. This species was first discovered by Danish entomologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1798. It lived mostly in the Eastern Arid Area of St. Helena. It somehow got confused 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, found some enormous dry tail pincers while searching for bird bones. 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.

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, and before seabirds were wiped out by introduced predators, they lived in seabird colonies in rocky places.

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 endanger the native species, especially the giant earwig, if it still exists.^{[citation needed]}

[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.