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Issue: Vol. 86 No. 1: 29 Jul. 2026
Type: Article
Published: 2026-07-29
DOI: 10.12976/jib/2026.86.1.1
Page range: 1-9
Abstract views: 112
PDF downloaded: 2

Morphological and molecular delimitation of a new species of Guanchia Burr, 1911 (Dermaptera, Forficulidae) from China

School of Grain Science and Technology; Jiangsu University of Science and Technology; Zhenjiang; China
Tanwei College; Tsinghua University; Beijing; China
biodiversity earwigs morphology phylogeny taxonomy

Abstract

In China, the genus Guanchia Burr, 1911 (Dermaptera: Forficulidae) is inadequately studied and often confused with morphologically similar taxa of Forficula Linnaeus, 1758. In this study, we describe Guanchia qinghaiensis sp. nov. from Qinghai Province based on morphological examination and mitochondrial COI sequence data. The new species is morphologically most similar to G. uvarovi (Semenov & Bey-Bienko, 1935), sharing slender male forceps with a basal tooth and comparable tegminal structure, but can be distinguished by the shape of the pygidium and the morphology of the male genitalia. Molecular analyses using Neighbor-Joining, Bayesian inference, and Maximum Likelihood methods consistently recover G. qinghaiensis sp. nov. as a lineage closely related to G. uvarovi. The relatively large interspecific genetic distance (p-distance = 19.0%) further supports its status as an independent species. This study provides the first DNA barcode data for Guanchia species from China and highlights the importance of integrating molecular and morphological evidence in resolving species boundaries within Dermaptera.

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