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Archidermapteron (Template:Lang-el = ancient, and dermaptera = skin-wing) is an extinct genus of earwigs, in the family Protodiplatyidae, the suborder Archidermaptera, and the order Dermaptera. It is one of only six genera in the family, its family being the only one in the suborder. The genus contains only one known species: Archidermapteron martynovi. It had long, segmented cerci unlike modern species of Dermaptera, but tegmina and hind wings that folded up into a "wing package" that are like modern earwigs. The only clear fossil of the species was found in Russia.

Discovery

Only one fossil of Archidermapteron was ever discovered, and reports about it have been ambiguous, so little is known about how the species was discovered. This is because the enviroment that most earwigs live in often prevents preservation, because dead organisms in soil and other crevices quickly rot and dissolve away. It is known, however, that the sole fossil of it was found in the early 1900s by a team of Russian entomologists. The species is named after Dr. Andrey Vasilyevich Martynov, who wrote a paper in 1925 about its discovery.

Characteristics

The genus is characterized by having cerci as long as its thorax and abdomen combined, or about 80% of the length of its body. This is unlike most extant earwigs in the Forficulina suborder. For example, most male Common earwigs, Forficula auricularia, have cerci that are slightly less than the length of their abodmen, but in rare cases can reach lengths that are slightly longer. Common earwigs' cerci almost never reach lengths longer than their abodmen, let alone their abodmen and thorax combined.

The genus's cerci themselves could be described as being more bead-like, or filiform, than the thicker cerci, specifically known as forceps, of most other earwigs. One of the key characteristics of the Forficulina suborder is the existence of large, thick, basally broadened and crenulate-toothed forceps, which is notably absent from Archidermapteron. The only genera of earwigs with these uncharacteristically-thinner cerci are earwigs in the suborders Arixeniina and Hemimerina, which are rare and contain few individuals.

In order to open their wings, extant species of Forficulina use their cerci because their wings fold into a "package" due to internal elasticity. While Archidermapteron had such a wing package, they also had long segmented cerci, as mentioned above. This means that the unsegmented cerci of extant species of Forficulina is probably not an adaptation for wing folding. Instead, it is likely that the cerci of Archidermapteron served a function similar to that of an insect's antennae: touch.

Phylogenesis

According to the research of Dr. Fabian Hass, an entomologist who specializes in earwig biology, the relative age of this genus compared to other genera in the suborder Archidermaptera can be approximated based upon the research of Dr. R. Willmann. According to Willmann, the genus Archidermapteron existed longer ago than the genera Dermapteron and Turanovia, but around the same time period as the genera Asiodiplatys, Microdiplatys, and Protodiplatys. He bases this assumption on the shape of the fossils' cerci: Archidermateron, Asiodiplatys, Microdiplatys, and Protodiplatys all had cerci that were long and filiform, while Dermapteron had cerci that were short and more forcep-like. Therefore, Turanovia would have been in between both groups.

Willmann also discovered that Archidermaptera cannot be a monophyletic group, or a group consisting of an ancestor and all its descendants. The reasoning for this is that various genera in the suborder, such as Dermapteron, are more similar to the earwigs with forceps-like cerci than other genera, such as Turanovia, as mentioned above. This would imply that not all of the decendents of Archidermaptera are contained within in the group Archidermaptera. In particular, the group Forficulina is decended from Archidermaptera, but is not included in Archidermaptera, but rather its own group. Therefore, Archidermaptera is not monophyletic, but instead paraphyletic, meaning that the group contains its most recent common ancestor, but does not contain all of the descendants of that ancestor.

However, this does not necessarily mean that Willmann's hypothesis is correct. According to Dr. V. N. Vishnyakova, in an article written by her in the Paleontological Journal, Willmann could be correct on some fronts, but wrong on others. Although Vishnyakova did not address Willmann specifically (she wrote about it ten years earlier), her paper disagrees with Willmann's on the basis of the ordering of Semenviola, Semenoviolides, and Turanoderma, which are extinct genera in Forficulina. Mainstream science is still unsure of whose chart is more accurate: it all depends on the definitions of certain taxon, which can change from person to person.

References

1. http://dermaptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=2866
2. ^ Hass, Fabian (1996). "Archidermaptera". Tree of Life. The University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and The University of Arizona Library. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2009-04-12. Retrieved 2009-04-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
3. http://us.mirror.gbif.org/species/browse/resource/563/taxon/5203040/
4. ^ "Tree of Life Web Project - Details for Media ID# 852". Tree of Life. Russian Academy of Science. 1992. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2009-04-12. Retrieved 2009-04-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
5. Martynov, A. (1925) "On a new interesting fossil beetle from the Jurassic beds in Northern Turkestan". Revue russe d'Entomologie, 19, 73-78.
6. ^ "European earwig - Forficula auricularia Linnaeus". Featured Creatures. Florida: Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry. 1998. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2009-04-12. Retrieved 2009-04-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
7. Hass, Fabian (1996). "Dermaptera". Tree of Life. The University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and The University of Arizona Library. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2009-04-12. Retrieved 2009-04-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
8. Kleinow, W. (1966) Untersuchungen zum Flügelmechanismus der Dermapteren. Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Ökologie der Tiere, 56, 363-416.
9. Hass, Fabian (2007). "Welcome to the Earwig Research Centre". Earwig Research Centre. Heilbronn. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2009-04-12. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
10. Hass, Fabian (2007). "Earwig Research Centre :: People". Earwig Research Centre. Heilbronn. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2009-04-12. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
11. Willmann, R. (1990) Die Bedeutung paläontologischer Daten für die zoologische Systematik. Verhandlungen der Deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft, 83, 277-289.
12. "Tree of Life Web Project - Details for Media ID# 3084". Tree of Life. Russian Academy of Science. 1992. Archived from the original (HTML) on 2009-04-13. Retrieved 2009-04-13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
13. Vishnyakova, V.N. (1980) Earwigs from the Upper Jurassic of the Karatau range. Paleontological Journal, 1, 78-95.

External links

• The Tree of Life's article on Archidermaptera
• A drawing of the species Archidermapteron martynovi

• Earwigs