A curious earwig

[British Red]

Today, whilst moving a pile of stacked timber during a storm, I disturbed a nest of earwigs - bleeding loads of them too - probably a couple of hundred. This surprised me as the timber is not rotten - its pressure treated new stuff - and it had only been stacked there a few days before.

Anyway, one of thes eearwigs was white / translucent.

I suspected this was a newly hatched one. Thats fine - except it was slightly larger than a fully grown adult

Anyone have any idea why this apparent hatchling would be so large?

Red

 

[DaveBromley]

could it be an albino?

Dave

 

[Loenja]

looks pretty cool

 

[nuggets]

do they shed there caripace ??/ outer shell as they grow ???

 

[Trunks]

Just a young-un, Red. Weird though.

http://pestcemetery.com/albino-earwigs/

 

[British Red]

Cheers Trunks - looks like nuggets nailed it - I suspect probably the final "shedding" of a large one

However old I get - theres always something new to see

Thanks guys

 

[_scorpio_]

yep its just a moult. the reason its larger than the rest is because the shell hasnt dried and shrunk yet so is still all squishy.

 

[Dingus Magee]

I found one of these when I were a lad (decades ago now lol) clearing out our garden shed. Its a female, as evidenced by the shape of the cerci, or 'pincers' on the tail, and I assumed at the time that she was the 'queen'. Earwigs do, in fact, care for their young quite carefully, protecting them until their first moult. They'll moult their exoskeleton, as they grow, about 5-6 times in all...if she was larger than the other earwigs, it suggests that this was maybe one the later moults...great that you caught that on film though...nice one