Saint Helena earwig

Last updated

Saint Helena earwig
Temporal range: Eocene To 1967 C.E. [1]
Labidura herculeana.jpg
Preserved specimen in the Museum of Saint Helena, Jamestown, with dislocated posterior
Status iucn3.1 EX.svg
Extinct  (1967)  (IUCN 3.1) [2]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Dermaptera
Family: Labiduridae
Genus: Labidura
Species:
†L. herculeana
Binomial name
†Labidura herculeana
(Fabricius, 1798)
LocationSaintHelena.png
Location of Saint Helena
Synonyms

Labidura loveridgeiZeuner, 1962

The Saint Helena earwig or Saint Helena giant earwig (Labidura herculeana) is an extinct species [2] of very large earwig endemic to the oceanic island of Saint Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean. [3]

Contents

Description

Comparison of the male (top), and female Labidura herculeana restoration.jpg
Comparison of the male (top), and female

Growing as large as 84 mm (3.3 in) long (including forceps), the Saint Helena earwig was the world's largest earwig. It was shiny black with reddish legs, short elytra and no hind wings. [4]

Distribution and ecology

The earwig was endemic to Saint Helena, being found on the Horse Point Plain, Prosperous Bay Plain, and the Eastern Arid Area of the island. It was known to have lived in plain areas, gumwood forests and seabird colonies in rocky places. The earwig inhabited deep burrows, coming out only at night following rain. Dave Clark of the London Zoo said that "the females make extremely good mothers". [5] Known from subfossils remains, Saint Helena giant hoopoe could have been a predator of this earwig. [6]

History

The Saint Helena earwig was first discovered by Danish entomologist Johan Christian Fabricius, who named it Labidura herculeana in 1798. It later became confused with the smaller and more familiar shore earwig Labidura riparia , was demoted to a subspecies of that species in 1904, and received little attention from science. [2] It was all but 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 huge earwig. The remains were forwarded to F. E. Zeuner, who named it as a new species, Labidura loveridgei. [1]

In 1965, entomologists found live specimens in burrows under boulders in Horse Point Plain. While they were thought to be a separate species, L. loveridgei, once examined, they were found to be the same as L. herculeana, and this was reinstated as their official scientific name (L. loveridgei became a junior synonym). Other searches since the 1960s have not succeeded in finding the earwig. [2] [7] It was allegedly last seen alive in 1967. [2]

On 4 January 1982, the Saint Helena Philatelic Bureau issued a commemorative stamp depicting the earwig, which brought attention to its conservation. [8] In the spring of 1988, a two-man search called Project Hercules was launched by London Zoo, but was unsuccessful. [7] In April 1995 another specimen of earwig remains was found. It proved that the earwigs not only lived in gumwood forests but, before breeding seabirds were wiped out by introduced predators, they also lived in seabird colonies. [9]

In 2005 Howard Mendel from the Natural History Museum conducted a search with Philip and Myrtle Ashmole, to no avail. [10]

In 2023 British arachnologist Danniella Sherwood, with support from Saint Helenian colleagues from the government of Saint Helena and the Saint Helena National Trust, negotiated the donation and repatriation of a giant earwig specimen from the Royal Museum for Central Africa to Saint Helena, so that the island could have an intact specimen in their museum. The specimen arrived at the Museum of Saint Helena later the same year. [11]

Conservation status

The earwig has not been seen alive since 1967, despite searches for it in 1988, 1993, 2003 and 2005. It is possibly extinct due to habitat loss, "by the removal of nearly all surface stones.. ... for construction", as well as predation by introduced rodents, mantids, and centipedes ( Scolopendra morsitans ). In 2014, the IUCN changed their assessment of L. herculeana on the IUCN Red List from Critically Endangered to Extinct . [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earwig</span> Order of insects

Earwigs make up the insect order Dermaptera. With about 2,000 species in 12 families, they are one of the smaller insect orders. Earwigs have characteristic cerci, a pair of forcep-like pincers on their abdomen, and membranous wings folded underneath short, rarely used forewings, hence the scientific order name, "skin wings". Some groups are tiny parasites on mammals and lack the typical pincers. Earwigs are found on all continents except Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Helena scrub and woodlands</span>

The Saint Helena scrub and woodlands ecoregion covers the volcanic island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. The island's remote location gave rise to many endemic species. First discovered and settled in the 1500s, the island has been degraded by human activities. Most of its native habitat has been destroyed, and many of its unique plants and animals are extinct or endangered.

Giant earwig may refer to any of the following species of earwigs:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Helena hoopoe</span> Extinct species of bird

The Saint Helena hoopoe, also known as the Saint Helena giant hoopoe or giant hoopoe, is an extinct species of hoopoe known exclusively from an incomplete subfossil skeleton. Once endemic to the island of Saint Helena, it was last seen around 1550, likely driven to extinction by various aspects of human activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Helena rail</span> Extinct species of bird

The Saint Helena rail was a large flightless rail from Saint Helena. It became extinct in the early 16th century.

Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, as well the other uninhabited islands nearby, are a haven for wildlife in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The islands are or were home to much endemic flora and fauna, especially invertebrates, and many endemic fish species are found in the reef ecosystems off the islands. The islands have been identified by BirdLife International as Important Bird Areas for both their endemic landbirds and breeding seabirds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ascension crake</span> Extinct species of bird

The Ascension crake is an extinct flightless bird that previously lived on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Like many other flightless birds on isolated islands, it was a rail. It was declared extinct by Groombridge in 1994; BirdLife International confirmed this in 2000 and 2004.

<i>Commidendrum rotundifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Commidendrum rotundifolium, the bastard gumwood, is a species of tree endemic to the island of Saint Helena. It was thought to be extinct, but one last tree was discovered in Horse Pasture in 1982. This tree, long believed to be the last, was destroyed in 1986 by a gale. However seedlings were grown from this tree before it perished. The last of these to survive in cultivation was damaged by gales in 2008 and the survival of the species was in doubt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Helena dove</span> Extinct species of bird

The Saint Helena dove is an extinct species of flightless bird in the family Columbidae. It is monotypic within the genus Dysmoropelia. It was endemic to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is known from remains of Late Pleistocene age found at the Sugarloaf Hill locality, which consists of aeolian calcareous sands. The holotype consists of a right coracoid, with paratypes consisting of "distal end of right tarsometatarsus, (S/1963.25.29) distal half of right humerus, (S/1963.25.26) worn left tibiotarsus lacking distal end, distal portion of shaft of left tarsometatarsus, (S/1963.25.30) worn proximal end of right humerus. left ulna, proximal fragments of left ulnae, (175959) proximal end of right femur, (175962) distal end of right humerus"

Storrs Lovejoy Olson was an American biologist and ornithologist who spent his career at the Smithsonian Institution, retiring in 2008. One of the world's foremost avian paleontologists, he was best known for his studies of fossil and subfossil birds on islands such as Ascension, St. Helena and Hawaii. His early higher education took place at Florida State University in 1966, where he obtained a B.A. in biology, and the University of Florida, where he received an M.S. in biology. Olson's doctoral studies took place at Johns Hopkins University, in what was then the School of Hygiene and Public Health. He was married to fellow paleornithologist Helen F. James.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prosperous Bay Plain</span>

Prosperous Bay Plain is an area on the eastern coast of Saint Helena, a British island territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the site of the Saint Helena Airport, and is notable for its high invertebrate biodiversity.

The Ascension night heron is an extinct night heron species from the genus Nycticorax endemic to the South Atlantic island of Ascension. It is predominantly known from the bone fragments of six specimens found in guano deposits and caves on Ascension Island and described by Philip Ashmole, Kenneth Edwin Laurence Ryder Simmons, and William Richmond Postle Bourne in 2003.

Arthur Loveridge was a British biologist and herpetologist who wrote about animals in East Africa, particularly Tanzania, and New Guinea. He gave scientific names to several gecko species in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Saint Helena</span>

The Museum of Saint Helena is a museum on the island of Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory in the south Atlantic Ocean. It has an extensive collection covering the maritime, military and social history of the island over two floors. It also has a small gift and book shop and an adjoining gallery for temporary exhibits.

<i>Titanolabis</i> Genus of earwigs

Titanolabis is a genus of earwigs in the subfamily Anisolabidinae. It was cited by Srivastava in Part 2 of Fauna of India. Among its species is the Australian T. colossea, which at about 5 cm (2.0 in) long is the largest certainly living species of earwig.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North-east Saint Helena Important Bird Area</span>

The North-east Saint Helena Important Bird Area is a 48 km2 tract of land covering about 39% of the island of Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports several colonies of breeding seabirds, including the red-billed tropicbird, as well as much of the remaining habitat of the endemic, and critically endangered, Saint Helena plover.

Nelson Philip Ashmole, commonly known as Philip Ashmole, is an English zoologist and conservationist. His main research field focused on the avifauna of islands, including Saint Helena, Ascension Island, Tenerife, the Azores, and Kiritimati. Other interests include insects and spiders, of which Ashmole discovered and described some new taxa.

<i>Labidura</i> Genus of earwigs

Labidura is a genus of earwigs in the family Labiduridae. Probably the earliest specimen of Labidura was found in Eocene amber. Among the Labidura species, Labidura riparia is cosmopolitan, but the Saint Helena earwig was the largest of all earwigs before its possible extinction after the year of 1967.

References

  1. 1 2 Zeuner, F. E. (1962). A subfossil giant Dermapteron from St. Helena. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 138: 651-653.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 D. Pryce & L. White (2014). "Labidura herculeana". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . IUCN. 2014: e.T11073A21425735. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-3.RLTS.T11073A21425735.en .
  3. ↑ "Giant earwig". Insects and Spiders of the World. Vol. 4. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 2003. p.  236. ISBN   0-7614-7338-6.
  4. ↑ "Labidura". St Helena and Ascension Island Natural History. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
  5. ↑ Worthington, P. (1988). "Over there, the topics ring all sorts of bells". Financial Post. p. 14.
  6. ↑ Julian P. Hume (2017). Extinct Birds. Christopher Helm. p. 242. ISBN   9781472937469 . Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  7. 1 2 Shuker, Karl (1993). The Lost Ark. HarperCollins. pp. 235–236. ISBN   0002199432.
  8. ↑ Benson, Sonia; Nagel, Rob, eds. (2004). "Earwig, Saint Helena Giant". Arachnids, Birds, Crustaceans, Insects, and Mollusks. Endangered Species. Vol. 2 (2nd ed.). Detroit: UXL. pp. 482–483. ISBN   9780787676209.
  9. ↑ "The Invertebrates of Prosperous Bay Plain, St Helena: a survey" (DOC). St Helena and Ascension Island Natural History. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
  10. ↑ Chris Gower (January 2020). "Spotlight on Extinction: The St Helena Earwig". The Hourglass (4): 11.
  11. ↑ "St Helena Giant Earwig (Labidura herculeana) specimen returns to St Helena" (PDF). The Sentinel. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.