The flying earwig Hawaiian damselfly is a comparatively large and elongated species. The males are blue and black in color and exhibit distinctive, greatly enlarged, pincer-like cerci (paired appendages on the rearmost segment of the abdomen used to clasp the female during mating). It is for the males’ elongated abdominal appendages and their resemblance to those found on earwigs (order Dermaptera) that the species is named. Females are predominantly brownish in color. The adults measure from 1.8 to 1.9 inches (in) (46 to 50 millimeters (mm)) in length and have a wingspan of 1.9 to 2.1 in (50 to 53 mm). The wings of both sexes are clear except for the tips, which are narrowly darkened along the front margins. Naiads of this species have never been collected or found (Polhemus and Asquith 1996, p. 69), but they are believed to be terrestrial or semiterrestrial in habit (Kennedy 1934, p. 345; Preston 2007a). Terrestrial or semi-terrestrial naiads may occur in damp leaf litter, moist leaf axils of plants up to several feet above ground, or within moist soil or seeps between boulders in suitable habitat (Kennedy 1934, Zimmerman 1970, Simon et al 1984, Polhemus and Asquith 1996, Preston 2007, Polhemus 2017). Flying earwig Hawaiian damselfly adults are weak flyers and stay low amid the vegetation where they spend considerable time perching on vegetation and boulders (Polhemus and Asquith 1996). When disturbed, the adults fly downward within nearby vegetation or between rocks, rather than up and away as is usually observed with aquatic Hawaiian damselfly species. Pinapinao are very sensitive to changes in the weather and are rarely, if ever, seen on cold, rainy, or blustery days, being more active during warm sunny days (Polhemus and Asquith, 1996).