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Forficula auricularia Journal 11/9/14

Started By AntsAreUs , Nov 9 2014 10:36 AM

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8 replies to this topic

#1 Offline AntsAreUs - Posted November 9 2014 - 10:36 AM

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I have bred these before and they are extremely interesting to watch. I have a pair here and I'm going to try to breed them again.

#2 Offline DesertAntz - Posted November 9 2014 - 12:43 PM

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What are those? :thinking:

The good man is the friend of all living things. - Gandhi

#3 Offline AntsAreUs - Posted November 9 2014 - 12:46 PM

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What are those?

European earwigs.

#4 Offline James C. Trager - Posted November 12 2014 - 10:30 AM

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I see you provided romantic lighting for them. :warning:

#5 Offline dean_k - Posted November 12 2014 - 10:41 AM

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Do warwigs do anything with their rear mandible-like things?

#6 Offline AntsAreUs - Posted November 12 2014 - 1:18 PM

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They use it to defend against predators, so if I feed any to my ants I would probably have to take them off. It does not hurt when this species pinch you, but there are so insanely big species that I'm sure of hurt pretty bad.

#7 Offline James C. Trager - Posted November 13 2014 - 4:35 AM

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The males sometimes use them in dominance battles to win over females. I've observed other earwig species use the pinchers (technically, cerci) to carry food items.

#8 Offline James C. Trager - Posted November 13 2014 - 4:42 AM

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Aside from defense, the cerci (pinchers) are sometimes used by male earwigs in dominance battles, so they are almost invariably larger in males of the various species.

They may be used in prey handling too, as in this image of a common southern species preying on a male Camponotus: http://bugguide.net/...ew/72351/bgpage