So what do those rear-mounted hooks/pincers do?
Capturing prey, defence, and grabbing onto your brain so you can’t pull them out.
Well, maybe only two of those.
<raises hand>
Make it at least three people. 
Again-most animals with pincers have them near their eyes 9it helps to see what you are grabbing). How do rear-mounted pincers work?
Earwigs swing like a pendulum do.
This is definitely a near-obnoxious post (near?), but one of the main characters/types/forces/themes in Finnegans Wake, sometimes referred to as Finnegan, the guy who gets waked, is repeatedly characterized as an earwig. Many, many fun cites, and, unsurprisingly, articles and book-length chapters on precisely that.