280 days of Urbpandemonium #75

[urbpan]

If I can influence people in any way to tolerate these beautiful creatures, then my efforts are worthy. Scutigera coleoptrata* inspires instant fear or hatred in most people, as a first impression. True they are invaders from Europe (like many of us) but they are predators that feed on other, less welcome invaders. House centipedes prefer small flies and cockroaches, and have no interest in biting humans. This one appears to be interested in the instructions on the kiddie pool--but it was merely trapped in it, the way they often become trapped in bathtubs and sinks.


* Scutigera means "shield bearer" and coleo- means sheath, but I'll be darned if I can find what -ptrata is supposed to mean. Linnaeus is playing another trick on us modern readers.

Comments

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that! A commenter on the tumblr version of this post posited that "coleoptrata" was Linnaeus describing the centipede as "beetle-like." Still baffling, but it makes etymological sense.

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

Yup. I pulled up the Systema Natura, and it's described as "thorace coleoptrato", so it has a body like a beetle.

Pg. 638, if you want to see for yourself http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/10277#page/660/mode/1up

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Most excellent.

[uneko.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder what sort of nomenclature scheme we'd end up with if we started over today and gave everything new names that were not so CRAZY. ;)

I don't see much beetle-like about the centipede, but, oh well ;) I guess it makes about as much sense as Spider monkeys, leopard slugs, wolf spiders and so forth. So why not beetle centipedes? :p