urbpan | 100 Species #16: Fourlined fringetail (Reply)

A fourlined fringetail (Species #16 Ctenolepisma lineata) briefly pauses its mad dash across the bathroom tile.

The insect order Thysanura* (which means "fringe-tail," referring to the two long cerci** and middle abdominal segment making a three part "tail" of sorts) includes the famous silverfish and somewhat less well-known firebrat. The family also includes this species, which is apparently native to southern Europe, but found along the east coast of North America as well as in California. It may go without saying that it is almost always found indoors, and humans are the cause for it being found so very far from its original range.

Creatures in this order are spectacularly omnivorous, feeding on substances such as bookbinding glue and wallpaper paste. The fourlined fringetail is among a very small number of animals that can digest cellulose (cows and termites cheat by having guts packed with cellulose-digesting microorganisms).

This is the first appearance of this species on this blog! The related species that is actually silver (owing to covering of slippery scales) was 365 Urban Species #275.

* It appears that more up-to-date writers use the name Zygentoma for the order.

** Cerci are also the "pincers" at the back of an earwig, and the sensory tails at the back of a cockroach.

I leaped to this brash identification with the help of these websites:
The indispensable bugguide.net.
UC Riverside's website on Urban Entomology.
I made up the common name.