PSYCHE 
Vol. 68 June-September, 1961 Nos. 2-3 
A NEW EARWIG IN THE GENUS VOSTOX 
(DERMAPTERA: LABIIDAE) 
FROM THE SOUTHWESTERN 
UNITED STATES AND MEXICO 1 
By W. L. Nutting 2 and Ashley B. Gurney 3 
During the summer of 1958 a single male earwig was taken from a 
light trap in southwestern New Mexico and sent to the U. S. National 
Museum for identification. Apparently a new species of Vostox, it 
was put aside with the hope that more specimens might be collected. 
In the fall of 1959, during a study of the Dermaptera in the Univer- 
sity of Arizona collection, six adults and three nymphs of this same 
earwig were discovered among some undetermined specimens. A fur- 
ther search finally resulted in the completion of the series of six males, 
seven females, and three nymphs upon which the following description 
is based. This new earwig brings the total number of Dermaptera 
in the United States, both native and adventive, to 19 species and 1 
subspecies. 4 Probably not more than six or seven of them are repre- 
sentatives of our endemic fauna. 
There are about seven previously described species of Vostox , of 
which only brunneipennis (Serville) occurs in the United States; the 
others are all Neotropical. V. brunneipennis ranges from Virginia. 
Indiana, and Illinois south to Florida and westward to eastern Texas, 
with a few records from Panama and the states of Vera Cruz and 
Sinaloa in Mexico. So far as the available material demonstrates, the 
new species ranges from southern New Mexico and Arizona into the 
Mexican states of Sinaloa and Baja California. Neither of the species 
Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Paper No. 642. 
department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson. 
3 Entomology Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. De- 
partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
“Several changes, which have occurred in the list of United States Dermap- 
tera since the paper by Gurney (1950) appeared, may be noted. Prolabia has 
been found to be a synonym of Marava, and M. wallacei (Dohrn) a synonym 
of M. arachidis (Yersin), the latter current combination replacing Prolabia 
arachidis (see Hincks, 1954). Pyragropsis buscki (Caudell), a recent addition 
to the list, occurs in Florida (Gurney, 1959). Prolabia pulchella (Serville) 
has been transferred to Laprobia, a genus described as new by Hincks (1960). 
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