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Insect Identification Key Based on your answers to the questions, you have identified your insect as being in the order Dermaptera! Members of this order include:
earwigs. Etymology:
Dermaptera comes from the Greek words derma, which means skin, and ptera, which means wings. This refers to the leathery forewings, which are typical of earwigs. General characteristics:
Order Dermaptera: the earwigs
• sturdy pincer-like cerci, which are known as forceps in the earwigs, located at the end of the abdomen (no other insect group has forceps, so this is an excellent identifying feature)
• hard, elongate body
• dark-colored
• winged (although some are wingless)
• winged earwigs have short, veinless forewings, which are known as tegmina, with large, semicircular, rear flight wings folded into pleats and stored beneath them
• long, multisegmented antennae
• biting mouthparts (chewing mandibles)
• hemimetabolous metamorphosis (egg — nymph — adult)
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Number of recognized species worldwide: about 1,800
Classification:
Kingdom Animalia For a list of all of the orders in this key, click here: List of Orders.
Oops! If this doesn't appear to be the order for your insect, go back through the key and look more carefully at your insect while answering the questions again. Your perseverance will reward you! I would like to return to the start of this key. Unless noted otherwise, photographs on this website are the property of the photographers and may not be reused without written permission from the photographers. To obtain permission, request it here. Photos at the top of this website are by: Leslie Mertz, Ph.D., LMERTZ@nasw.org. Reproduction of material from any KnowYourInsects.org webpages without written permission is strictly prohibited.
Phylum Arthropoda
Class Insecta
Order Dermaptera
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