The Earwigs of Kenya
Checklist of the 54 species occurring in Kenya
Author: Fabian Haas
Earwigs - Dermaptera is their scientific name - are fairly common animals. Despite that or maybe because of that their biology has been rarely examined in detail. Engaged amateurs and professional biologist regularly searching for Dermaptera are rare, much in difference to other groups of organisms such as butterflies, moths, dragon flies and crickets.
That is even more embarrassing since earwigs do have very interesting characteristics. Very outstanding is the - present probably in all species - the brood care by the mother for eggs and first instar nymphs. Furthermore the earwigs' flight capability poses an interesting problem. Some specimens of one species do fly and sometimes caught with light traps, while other specimens of the very same species cannot fly at all. A systematic recording of the flight capabilities would be scientifically interesting and feasible for amateurs, too, who could collect the important biological basis data.
Worldwide, about 2.200 species are known to science and in the range of the Fauna Europaea, 83 species are recorded. In Eastern Africa (country list see below) a total of 167 species was traced (Haas, 2005; Haas & Häuser, 2005). In Kenya herself, there are 54 species.
The name 'earwig' is not quite understandable. Naturally earwigs do sometimes crawl into human ears, which they use as hiding place and retreat. Of course this happens in rural society which was interlinked with nature - for the good or bad - more intimately than our urbane societies. Earwigs use human ears as hiding place that is all. However this is also done by other insects, as was reported by South African doctors who found all sorts of insects in ears. Amongst them were cockroaches, bugs, beetles - however: no earwigs (use keyword 'medicine' in the 'Keywords' database). So it seems not really logic to me to name especially this insect earwig.
Incidentally, there seem to be only two ways how to name the Dermaptera. It is either after the human ear, as in English, German, French and Russian. In other languages such as Japanese, Thai, but also Swedish, Spanish, Finish, Italian and Portuguese the name refers to the cerci, regarding them as scissors or pincers or tongs (more in my database 'Vernacular, Native or Common Names').
However you call them, earwigs never purposefully crawl into the human or other animals ears' and never lay eggs there, and never build nests there or penetrates to the brain to lay eggs.
Number of earwig species in Eastern African Counries. Data from Haas (2005) and Haas & Häuser (2005). The data are subject to change but are currently (
| country | species | [genera] | (endemic/cosmopolitan) |
specimens collected
|
 |
||
| Burundi |
8
|
[8]
|
(0/2) |
17
|
|||
| Djibouti |
1
|
[1]
|
(0/1) |
1
|
|||
| Eritrea |
10
|
[7]
|
(0/3) |
47
|
|||
| Ethiopia |
26
|
[13]
|
(9/3) |
345
|
|||
| Kenya |
54
|
[25]
|
(5/6) |
468
|
|||
| Rwanda |
20
|
[14]
|
(0/2) |
20
|
|||
| Socotra |
9
|
[6]
|
(2/3) |
103
|
|||
| Somalia |
4
|
[4]
|
(0/2) |
5
|
|||
| Sudan |
14
|
[7]
|
(2/2) |
120
|
|||
| Tanzania |
107
|
[34]
|
(31/7) |
1286
|
|||
| Uganda |
52
|
[24]
|
(7/5) |
421
|
Literature on Kenyan Earwigs
Brindle A (1964) A revision of the African species of the genus Gelotolabis Zacher (Dermaptera: Carcinophoridae). Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 13 (Volume 7): 747-755.
Brindle A (1967) A key to the Ethiopian genus Diaperasticus Burr (Dermaptera: Forficulidae). Proceedings of the Royal entomological Society of London (B), 36: 147-152.
Brindle A (1969) A key to the African species of the genus Chaetospania Karsch (Dermaptera, Labiiade). Proceedings of the Royal entomological Society of London (B), 38: 95-100.
Brindle A (1973) The Dermaptera of Africa. Pt I. Annales du Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale Tervuren, Series no 8, Sciences Zoologiques, 205: 335 pp.
Brindle A (1978) The Dermaptera of Africa. Pt II. Annales du Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale Tervuren, Series no 8, Sciences Zoologiques, 225: 204 pp.
Burr M (1911) Dermaptera. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Zentral-Afrika-Expedition 1907-1908 unter Führung Adolf A. Friedrichs Herzog zu Mecklenburg Part, 3 (0): 455-460.
Haas F (2005) Biogeography of Eastern African Dermaptera. 7. Annual Meeting of the GfBS in Basel, Switzerland. (250 KB, PDF)
Haas F, Häuser CL & Kinuthia W (2004) Earwigs (Dermaptera: Insects) of Kenya — new species and check-list. Poster. (600 KB, PDF). 5th International Symposium on Tropical Biology.
Haas F, Holstein J, Zahm A, Häuser CL & Kinuthia W (2005) Earwigs (Dermaptera: Insects) of Kenya - checklist and species new to Kenya. In: African Biodiversity: Molecules, Organisms, Ecosystems. Proc. 5th Intern. Symp. Trop. Biol., Museum Koenig, Bonn (B. A. Huber, B. J. Sinclair, K.-H. Lampe, eds.). 99-107.
Haas F & Häuser CL (2005) Biogeography of Dermaptera in Eastern Africa - elevation and humidity as factors for diversity. DGaaE Meeting in Dresden, Tropentag in Hohenheim. (900 KB, PDF)
Hincks WD (1943) Coryndon Memorial Museum Expedition to the Chyulu Hills - IX. Dermaptera. Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society, 17 (1&2): 33-38.
Hincks WD (1950) Some Dermaptera from Kilimanjaro, Tanganyika. Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, 86: 179-181.
Kevan DKMcE (1952) Dermaptera, Manteodea, Phasmatodea and Saltatoria collected by Dr. B. Benzon and Dr. F.W. Bræstrup in Southern and Central Kenya Colony. Entomologiske Meddelelser, 26: 222-230.
Kevan DKMcE (1954) Dermaptera from Northern Kenya. Entomologist, 87 (April): 75-76.
Koppenhoefer AM (1993) Egg predators of the banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus in western Kenya. Journal of Applied Entomology, 116 (4): 352-357.
Koppenhoefer AM (1995) Bionomics of the earwig species Euborellia annulipes in western Kenya (Dermaptera: Carcinophoridae). Entomologica Generalis, 20 (1-2): 81-85.
Koppenhoefer AM, Seshu Reddy KV, Madel G, Lubega MC (1992) Predators of the banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar) (Col., Curculionidae) in western Kenya. Journal of Applied Entomology, 114 (5): 530-533.
Seshu Reddy KV (1983) Studies on the stem borer complex of sorghum in Kenya. Insect Science and its Application, 4 (1-2): 3-10.
Further, detailed information on the Kenya earwig fauna is available in the databases and in the link list.
| Family | Subfamily | Species | Author | Notes and Common names | |
| 1 | Anisolabididae | Carcinophorinae | Anisolabis felix | (Burr, 1907) | |
| 2 | Anisolabis jeanneli | (Menozzi, 1938) | Locus Typicus, Endemic | ||
| 3 | Euborellia annulipes | (Lucas, 1847) | Cosmopolitan | ||
| 4 | Euborellia cincticollis | (Gerstaecker, 1883) | |||
| 5 | Euborellia tellinii | (Borelli,1908) | |||
| 6 | Gonolabis hincksi | (Brindle, 1964) | Locus Typicus, Endemic | ||
| 7 | Isolabiinae | Isolabis usambarana | (Verhoeff, 1902) | ||
| 8 | Apachyidae | Apachyinae | Apachyus depressus | (Palisot de Beauvois, 1805) | |
| 9 | Chelisochidae | Chelisochinae | Chelisoches morio | (Fabricius, 1775) | Cosmopolitan |
| 10 | Diplatyidae | Diplatyinae | Diplatys fella | Burr, 1911 | |
| 11 | Diplatys macrocephalus | Palisot de Beauvois, 1805 | |||
| 12 | Diplatys pictus | (Zacher, 1910) | Locus Typicus, Endemic | ||
| 13 | Diplatys ugandanus | Hincks,1955 | |||
| 14 | Haplodiplatys kivuensis | (Hincks, 1951) | |||
| 15 | Lobodiplatys coriaceus | (Kirby, 1891) | |||
| 16 | Forficulidae | Cosmiellinae | Cosmiella adolfi | (Burr, 1909) | |
| 17 | Cosmiella bilobata | (Brindle, 1973) | Locus Typicus | ||
| 18 | Cosmiella pygidiata | (Brindle, 1973) | Locus Typicus, Endemic | ||
| 19 | Diapersticinae | Diaperasticus bonchampsi | (Burr, 1904) | ||
| 20 | Diaperasticus erythrocephalus | (Olivier, 1791) | |||
| 21 | Diaperasticus sansibaricus | (Karsch, 1886) | |||
| 22 | Forficulinae | Forficula auricularia | Linnaeus, 1758 | Cosmopolitan | |
| 23 | Forficula beelzebub | (Burr, 1900) | |||
| 24 | Forficula cavallii | (Borelli, 1906) | |||
| 25 | Forficula lucasi | Dohrn, 1865 | |||
| 26 | Forficula senegalensis | Audinet-Serville, 1839 | Kakamega | ||
| 27 | Guanchia rehni | (Burr, 1953) | Locus Typicus | ||
| 28 | Guanchia sjoestedti | (Burr, 1907) | |||
| 29 | Hemimeridae | Hemimerinae | Hemimerus deceptus | Rehn & Rehn, 1936 | |
| 30 | Hemimerus hanseni | Sharp, 1895 | |||
| 31 | Hemimerus sessor | Rehn & Rehn, 1936 | Locus Typicus | ||
| 32 | Hemimerus vosseleri | Rehn & Rehn, 1936 | |||
| 33 | Karschiellidae | Karschiellinae | Bormansia africana | Verhoeff, 1902 | |
| 34 | Bormansia impressicollis | Verhoeff, 1902 | Locus Typicus | ||
| 35 | Bormansia meridionalis | Burr, 1904 | |||
| 36 | Labiduridae | Labidurinae | Labidura riparia | (Pallas, 1773) | Cosmopolitan |
| 37 | Nalinae | Nala lividipes | (Dufour, 1828) | Cosmopolitan | |
| 38 | Pygidicranidae | Echinosomatinae | Echinosoma afrum | (Palisot de Beauvois, 1805) | |
| 39 | Echinosoma concolor | Borelli, 1907 | |||
| 40 | Echinosoma occidentale | Bormans, 1893 | |||
| 41 | Echinosoma wahlbergi | Dohrn, 1863 | |||
| 42 | Pygidicraninae | Dacnodes caffra | (Dohrn, 1867) | ||
| 43 | Dacnodes separata | (Burr, 1908) | |||
| 44 | Dacnodes wigginsi | (Burr, 1914) | |||
| 45 | Spongiphoridae | Geracinae | Pseudovostox truncatus | Brindle, 1970 | Locus Typicus, Endemic |
| 46 | Labiinae | Labia minor | (Linnaeus, 1758) | Cosmopolitan | |
| 47 | Paralabella borellii | (Burr, 1908) | Locus Typicus | ||
| 48 | Paralabella curvicauda | (Motschulsky, 1863) | |||
| 49 | Sparattinae | Chaetospania pauliani | Hincks, 1948 | ||
| 50 | Chaetospania rodens | Burr, 1907 | |||
| 51 | Spongiphorinae | Marava arachidis | (Yersin, 1860) | ||
| 52 | Spongovostox assiniensis | (Bormans, 1893) | |||
| 53 | Spongovostox marginalis | (Thunberg, 1827) | Locus Typicus | ||
| 54 | Spongovostox quadrimaculatus | (Stal, 1855) |
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