Saint Helena earwig

Saint Helena giant earwig ( Labidura herculeana )

The Saint Helena giant earwig ( Labidura herculeana ), also known as Saint Helena earwig is a Ohrwurmart that occurs on the secluded island of St. Helena in the Central Atlantic or occurred. He was discovered in 1798 and described by the Danish zoologist Johann Christian Fabricius. Since 1967, he has not been detected. Nevertheless, many scientists hope that he might still survive in some remote areas of St. Helena.

Description

The Saint Helena giant earwig earwig is the largest in the world. He is up to 84 mm long. Of this amount, 50 mm body length and 34 mm on the length of the Tongs. The body is glossy black with reddish legs and short elytra. The hind wings are missing. The species has great morphological similarity with which, however, only 28 mm long earwig ( Lapidura riparia ), which also occurs on St. Helena.

Way of life

Labidura herculeana lived in deep caves, which he left only at night or in the rain. His diet consisted presumably from plants. His predators probably included the extinct Saint Helena Hoopoe (Upupa Antaeus ) and entrained mice and rats.

Distribution and habitat

The Saint Helena giant earwig lives or lived in lowland areas, " Gumwood Tree " forests or in seabird colonies on scree places. Occurrences are known from Horse Point and Prosperous Bay and on the Eastern Arid Area on St. Helena.

Status

The Saint Helena giant earwig was long ignored by science. Collected in 1913 by the French naturalist Guy Babault the second copy (after the type specimen of 1798 ), which today is located in Paris Muséum national d' histoire naturelle in elle. Subsequently, the type came again into oblivion, until the British Ornithologists Douglas Dorward and Philip Ashmole in search of bird bones in the Prosperous Bay found some enormous Tongs in 1962. The zoologist Arthur Loveridge later confirmed that this Tongs belonged to a giant earwig.

Discovered in 1965 a Belgian expedition in a small area in the area of Horse Point in the northeast of St. Helena living individuals. By 1967, about 40 specimens have been collected since the species is considered lost. Probably the persecution by mice and rats, the destruction of the " Gumwood Tree " forests and the competition with the centipede Scolopendra morsitans entrained has contributed to his disappearance.

Search expeditions of the London Zoo in 1988 and 1993 and further searches in 2003 by Philip Ashmole and 2006 by Howard Mendel were unsuccessful. In 1995, the subfossil clamp of a female was found in the Prosperous Bay.

In November 2005, the construction of a major airport on St. Helena was announced in the press. From that time many scientists were in favor of renouncing the airport construction, since this many endemic animal species could be wiped out, including the Saint Helena giant earwig, if it ever even existed. In 2007, 3,800 residents of St. Helena voted in a referendum for the airport, so that approximately around 2015 can be expected with the opening of the airport.

Currently, the Saint Helena giant earwig is classified by the IUCN as " critically endangered ".