African Earwig

Appearance

The African earwig looks a lot like the commoner Euborellia annulipes but it exhibits polymorphism of the wing development, sporting winged, wingless and brachypterous forms whereas E. annulipes is always wingless. The morphs are probably determined by environmental factors, but in natural populations the winged specimen are not especially more abundant but are recorded/collected way more as these are attracted to light.
The legs are pale yellow and in the dark antennae the fourth and sometimes third segment from the top are pale.

Naming

The species was first described from Cameroon as Brachylabis cincticollis by Gerstaecker in 1883.

Distribution

After being described from Cameroon, the species has been cited in literature with a wide distribution in western and equatorial Africa.
In the Americas it was probably introduced to California around 1946 and found in Arizona soon after (1950's). Contemporary records seem to also place it in Texas, possibly Mexico and now there seems to be a record from Georgia (on JungleDragon).