BURROWS AND TRACKWAYS OF THE DERMAPTERAN INSECTLABIDURA RIPARIA(PALLAS, 1773): A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ICHNOLOGY OF SANDY SUBSTRATES

Abstract

The earwigs, Dermaptera, are a group of insects which have been present since the Mesozoic. They have a relatively sparse fossil record, yet their life activities on and in soil or sediment leave traces with the potential for long-term preservation. These may include some burrows seen in Quaternary dunes and other sandy substrates. The well-known, cosmopolitan, sand-dwelling species Labidura riparia is examined as a potential model and reference for dermapteran tracemakers there and elsewhere in the geological record, through experimentally produced shelter burrows and trackways from wild-caught, laboratory-raised specimens. Shelter burrows were typically U-shaped with a pair of surface entrances, and these U-shapes could be additionally modified into Y-shapes or linked together to form a network. Trackways of L. riparia generally resembled those of other insects but may show features consistent with dermapteran anatomy such as tail-drag impressions produced by cerci.

Holocene insect pioneer colonization of post-glacial dune sands exemplified by tiger beetle burrows

“…Many of the Vistula Spit subfossil burrows also show evidence of bioturbation or disturbance nearby, which could also be consistent with the movement of adult beetles (Figure 5a and b). Other early colonizers of the dune sands in these types of habitat are ant lions (Figure 5c-e), and sand earwigs Labidura riparia (Figure 5f and g) whose traces were observed previously in similar modern and potentially subfossil states in similar dune habitats in the region (Hsieh et al, 2022). However, many of these other early potential insect traces would have much lower preservational potential long-term in the geological record than cicindelid larval burrows, since they are finer, shallower or surficial, and easily erased by disturbance.…”

Feeding Habits of Frogs in the Tottori Sand Dunes, Tottori Prefecture, Western Japan

“…Unfortunately, no quantitative survey of the invertebrate community in the study area has been conducted because it is a National Park Special Protection Area (Nagamatsu, 2022) and we need an extra permission for the type of research. However, in general, the earwig L. riparia inhabits arid environments, such as crop fields, and the species also occurs in coastal habitats (Hsieh et al, 2022). We often encountered this species in the study area during our surveys.…”

Intermittent and temporally variable bioturbation by some terrestrial invertebrates: implications for ichnology

“…A sand earwig Labidura riparia was found to produce a single U-shaped shelter burrow 1 day (Fig. 1D) after being transferred into a sand-filled container, but afterwards did not make any more burrows there for the remainder of 4 months, which was the majority of its captive life (Hsieh et al 2022). However, some burrowing animals have dynamic, shifting, home ranges, such as the blind mole-rat Spalax ehrenbergi researched by Zuri and Terkel (1996) and silvery mole-rat Heliophobius argenteocinereus found by Šklíba et al (2009) to, on average, excavate about 0.7 m of new tunnels a day, backfill around 64% of tunnels and make a new nest every month; some parts of the burrow system were treated as more permanent than others.…”