A new genus of striped earwigs allied to Zigrasolabis in mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber (Dermaptera: Labiduridae)

Dermaptera (earwigs) are a small order of Polyneoptera, generally with a narrow and flattened body, a pair of trademark forceps and leathery forewings, a nocturnal preference, and an omnivorous diet. Fossil earwigs are rare, but records from amber have been increasing in the last decade or so. A new genus and its type species, Tricholabidura elongata Peng and Engel, gen. et sp. nov., is erected based on a female striped earwig specimen preserved in a mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber piece. Tricholabidura has a combination of traits: body large and elongated (especially legs and antennae), relatively elongated second tarsomere, fleshy inflated arolium, longer tegmina, abundant fine setae over the tegmina and abdomen, apical sternum with medioapical margin produced as broadly rounded lobe, exposed pygidium and valvulae, that make it distinctive relative to Zigrasolabis and together are placed into the subfamily Zigrasolabidinae Engel, subfam. nov. Our research provides additional morphological features and information, whilst deepening our understanding of the lineages and diversity of late Mesozoic earwigs.