Largest earwig sanctuary

The world's first ­and only ­earwig sanctuary is contained inside the Great Cave at Niah in Sarawak, northern Borneo. The species uniquely protected in it is Arixenia esau, the hairy earwig, which was rediscovered here in 1952 after having been dismissed as extinct since its original discovery in 1909. Forming an unusual non-parasitic association with Cheiromeles torquatus, a hairless species of bulldog bat, the hairy earwigs are located in a specific portion of the cave containing a block of timber on which they settle. Consequently, in the early 1960s, Sarawak Museum curator Dr Tom Harrisson (UK) erected a fence around this piece of timber, and the hairy earwig sanctuary was duly created.