stylistic:tone
Distinguishing characteristics

The characteristics which distinguish the order Dermaptera from other insect orders are:

The overwhelming majority of earwig species are in the former suborder Forficulina, grouped into nine families of 180 genera, including Forficula auricularia, the common European Earwig. Species within Forficulina are free-living, have functional wings and are not parasites. The cerci are unsegmented and modified into large, forceps-like structures.

The first epizoic species of earwig was discovered by a London taxidermist on the body of a Malaysian hairless bulldog bat in 1909, then described by Karl Jordan. By the 1950s, the two suborders Arixeniina and Hemimerina had been added to Dermaptera. These were subsequently demoted to family Arixeniidae and superfamily Hemimeroidea (with sole family Hemimeridae), respectively. They are now grouped together with the former Forficulina in the new suborder Neodermaptera.

Arixeniidae represents two genera, Arixenia and Xeniaria, with a total of five species in them. As with Hemimeridae, they are blind and wingless, with filiform segmented cerci. Hemimeridae are viviparous ectoparasites, preferring the fur of African rodents in either Cricetomys or Beamys genera. Hemimerina also has two genera, Hemimerus and Araeomerus, with a total of 11 species.