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Urban species #275: Silverfish Lepisma saccharina

Forgive me please, and my blurry photographs. These things are so damn fast! I discovered this individual quite by accident. I was walking through the concourse between the Washington Street stop and the Park Street stop in the subway, when I happened to see two large American cockroaches. While I was taking pictures of them, a whitish blur zipped by. I couldn't believe my luck: I stopped for one urban species and found another. Too bad I didn't get better photographs.

This rapid-moving subway dwelling insect is a silverfish. It's belongs to an ancient group of animals; silverfish evolved before Nature thought to provide insects with wings. When humans came along hundreds of millions of years later, silverfish took advantage of our warm buildings full of starchy, plant-based objects. They come into homes, lurking in crevices and moving at night, and feeding on textiles, glues, paper, and other substances. They cause no bodily harm or disease to their primate landlords, though many people are alarmed by their appearance. Their bodies are covered with tiny scales that give them a silvery look and a slippery texture. Their rapid scuttling, like that of cockroaches and house centipedes, can be an unsettling surprise in the night.




Date: 2006-10-05 05:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mooncroneweb.livejournal.com
Sorry to say I have to spray for these. I tried not spraying, and when walking barefoot at night in the summer would inevitably step barefoot on one or two of them. Squished up silverfish between my toes is just too gross. And they were getting in the dog food, even tho I keep it wrapped up tight. I just could not stomach the idea that they might get into the flour, like meal worms do. *shudder*

They start out as babies smaller than a grain of sand, then get as big as an inch long. They like to live in the walls in the bathroom esp. where the steam heat pipes come up out of the floor. I guess that's where they get water.

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