Hemimeridae is a family of
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 folde ...
s in the suborder
Neodermaptera
Neodermaptera, sometimes called Catadermaptera,[BioLib.cz]
suborder Catadermaptera Steinmann, 1986 (retrieved 16 Se ...
. Hemimeridae was formerly considered a suborder, Hemimerina, but was reduced in rank to family and included in the new suborder Neodermaptera.
[
Hemimeridae is represented by two genera, '' Hemimerus'' and '' Araeomerus''.]viviparous
Among animals, viviparity is development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. This is opposed to oviparity which is a reproductive mode in which females lay developing eggs that complete their development and hatch externally from the ...
ectoparasites of African rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...
s, and have filiform segmented cerci. The best known species is '' Hemimerus bouvieri''.
Hemimeridae contains eleven described species placed within two genera: ''Hemimerus'' and ''Araeomerus'' (Nakata and Maa, 1974). Hemimerids are relatively small (5–15 mm) and inhabit the fur of giant nesomyid rats in Africa. Hemimerids have short, broad legs with grooves that allow them to cling to the host and specialized mouthparts for scraping dead skin and fungus from their host (Nakata and Maa, 1974). ''Araeomerus'' is found in the nest of long-tailed pouch rats (''Beamys
''Beamys'' is a genus of rodent in the family Nesomyidae.
It contains the following species:
* Lesser hamster-rat (''Beamys hindei'')
* Greater hamster-rat
The greater hamster-rat, greater long-tailed pouched rat, or long-tailed pouched rat ( ...
'') and ''Hemimerus'' is found on giant ('' Cricetomys'') rats (Nakata and Maa, 1974). ''Araeomerus'' are found more often in the burrows and nests of ''Beamys'' rat than on the rat itself, while ''Hemimerus'' less frequently leaves its host.[
]
Genera
The family contains the following genera:[
* '' Araeomerus'' Maa, 1974
* '' Hemimerus'' Walker, 1871
]
References
External links
*
An example specimen of the species ''Hemimerus talpoides'' from the Tree of Life ''(note that the species is incorrectly labeled)''
An example of a female ''Hemimerus vosseleri'' from the Australian National Insect Collection
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2378043
Dermaptera families
Hemimerina