May. 31st, 2015

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Flipping over rocks when I was a child, was a hobby full of surprises. I was looking for salamanders, but more often got slugs, earthworms, ground beetles, isopods, and millipedes. I would pick each of these up to examine them--I knew none of them could hurt me (the ground beetles could give a little pinch, but they never did). But if I saw one of these fast-moving orange centipedes, I let it scuttle away. Early attempts at grabbing them led them to twist alarmingly, and I was concerned I would be bitten or stung. As it turns out, these animals' venom-loaded forcipules are too small to penetrate human skin.

I call these "garden centipedes," although the order is more properly called Lithobiomorpha*. If I was more confident with identifying centipedes I might tell you it was Lithobius forficatus**, a European species introduced with its soil to New England, probably the most common lithobiomorph centipede in our area.

*Stone-living-shaped

**Scissor-shaped (probably referring to the last pair of legs) stone-liver
urbpan: (dandelion)
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Waldo, the Children's Zoo barn cat.
urbpan: (dandelion)
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e briefly had 2 puppies in the house--our own foster Angel Pecan and his sister Macadamia ("Big Mac")
urbpan: (dandelion)
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It's understandable that some people panic when a large (over 1 cm) roach appears at their porch light. But if you live in New England, at a regular house that gets cold on a regular basis, chances are very good that you shouldn't worry. Cockroaches live all around the world, and only a handful of Tropical and Mediterranean species become household pests. This one is our largest native roach Parcoblatta pennsylvanica*, like its kin a harmless detritovore. Males like this one can fly and find themselves confused at or into houses at night--firewood brought inside can also bring these roaches inside.

But unlike our pest roaches, these ones are found by themselves. Roaches adapted to living inside buildings live in great numbers, which is why they become pests in the first place.

*"Sparing cockroach from Pennsylvania," I think. "Sparing" meaning appearing sparsely--one at at time, as opposed to the cockroaches that are more commonly known, through being pests.

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