''Doru aculeatum'', the spine-tailed earwig, is an

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

in the family

Forficulidae Forficulidae is a family of earwigs in the order Dermaptera. There are more than 70 genera and 490 described species in Forficulidae. Species in this family include ''Forficula auricularia'' (the European earwig or common earwig) and '' Apterygi ...

. This

earwig 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 ...

is found in the woods and grassy areas of eastern North America and occurs at outdoor lights at night. The adults have a brown body with pale markings. The male has a short thorn-like spine in between the cerci on the 10th segment of the abdomen. It is the only native species of earwig in the north of the United States and is found as far north as Canada, where it hides in the leaf axils of emerging plants in southern Ontario wetlands.

Description

As given in W.S.Blatchley's ''Orthoptera of Northeastern America - with especial reference to the Faunas of Indiana and Florida '' (1920):

Dark chesnut brown; palpi, legs, edges of pronotum and outer two-thirds of tegmina yellow. Pronotum longer than broad, narrower than head. Tegmina nearly twice as long as pronotum, truncate; inner wings usually aborted. Forceps of male, three-fourths as long as abdomen slender, curved, bent down ward a little at basal third, becoming again hor-izontal a little before the tip, a pointed tooth pre-sent at second bend; of female shorter than those of male, their legs nearly straight, the lower inner edges very finely crenulate and usually contiguous for most of their length, the tips incurved. Length of body,

References

External resources

Image of male ''Doru aculeatum''
showing the median spine o
bugguide.net
Forficulidae Fauna of North America Insects described in 1876 {{earwig-stub