Forficula auricolaria Earwig Insect Dermaptera Forficulidae

Forficula auricularia cm 2-2.5 Insect Dermaptera Forficulidae.
Family: Forficulidae.
Common name: Common Earwig or European Earwig.
Syn. Forficula abrutiana, Forficula bipunctata, Forficula caucasica.

Forficula auricularia (Linnaeus, 1758) is an omnivorous flying insect mainly phytophagous, belonging to the order of the Dermaptera, family of the Forficulidae. The common name is due to the showy development of the cerci, which resemble pincers or scissors.
Dermaptera (De Geer, 1773) are an order of insects that includes about 1,800 species grouped into 3 suborders (Forficuloidea, Arixenioidea, Diploglossata) and 10 families. They are commonly known as "earwigs".
Earwigs originated in Europe, where it spread, was also introduced in North America at the beginning of the 19th century and is now widespread in much of the American continent.
The diet is omnivorous: they feed mainly on leaves, flowers and fruits but can also prey on small insects (adults and larvae) and feed on dead animals.
Due to its polyphagia, the insect is occasionally harmful to crops and foodstuffs, as it can attack herbaceous crops in the open field, horticultural, ornamental and fruit trees, but generally the populations remain within levels such as to consider it as a phytophagous secondary. In fact, it often acts as a predator, playing the role of auxiliary insect useful in many crops, since they feed on aphids and parasitic insects of plants. In viticulture, they have often been fought and removed, while today they are protected insects and used to control certain harmful populations.
It is often found in fruit and vegetable products due to the habit of taking refuge in natural interstices that offer shelter, such as the leaf axil of vegetables, the open pits of early peaches, the calycine inlets of the pome fruit, without causing direct damage, apart from the commercial depreciation of the product due to the presence of these insects.
It also frequents anthropized environments and can frequently be found even inside homes in the countryside.
The specific Latin epithet auricularia means relative to the ear (auricula) and in English the name of this insect is earwig, or creature of the ear. The German name "Ohrenzwicker" has roughly the same meaning. Both derive from the widespread but unsubstantiated belief that this insect penetrates the human brain through the ear and nestles there. Cases have been reported where earwigs have entered the ears of sleeping people. This can happen, just like any other insect, by pure chance, but because some species produce an irritant, the experience can be unpleasant and can cause damage to the hearing system. The transmission of the memory of these episodes probably gave rise to the myth.