2020 December 13

 

     Jeremy Tatum writes:  My recent plea for a photograph of a genuine Silverfish Lepisma saccharinum brought an interesting response from Libby Avis in Port Alberni. 

 

     First, two photographs of a Silverfish Lepisma saccharinum from 2020 August 26.   Note that the Silverfish has much shorter cerci and epiproct (the things at the tail-end!) than other lepismatids.

 

Silverfish Lepisma saccharinum (Thysanura: Lepismatidae) Libby Avis

Silverfish Lepisma saccharinum (Thysanura: Lepismatidae) Libby Avis

 

 

   Next – Ctenolepisma, from 2012.  The genus Ctenolepisma was formerly regarded as feminine, but it has now been declared to be neuter.  Therefore, writes Jeremy Tatum,what I have been calling C. longicaudata on this site is now to be called C. longicaudatum.  However, this photograph below may be a different species, namely   C. lineatum.   Notice the four rows of pale dots.   I think (not sure) that longicaudatum may have a longer abdomen) than lineatum, and possibly longer legs, too.

 

 I should probably sometime  (if I can find the time) go through earlier photographs of Ctenolepisma on this site, and see if we can determine which of the two species they are.

 

 

 

Ctenolepisma (probably lineatum) (Thysanura: Lepismatidae) Libby Avis

 

   As for English names,  originally “The” Silverfish  was Lepisma saccharina (now saccharinum), and “The” Firebrat was Thermobia domestica.  Other species in the family are called variously by different authors  either adjective silverfish or adjective firebrat.

 

   But we haven’t finished yet.  On 2020 October 29, Rick Avis found the interesting creature below in the Avis’s yard.   A blind and colourless three-pronged bristletail in a related Family,  Nicoletiidae:

 

Thysanura – Nicoletiidae      Libby Avis

 

Thysanura – Nicoletiidae      Libby Avis

 

 

   The photograph below shows the three caudal (tail) appendages.  The middle one is called the epiproct.  The outer two are cerci. 

Thysanura – Nicoletiidae      Libby Avis

 

 

Classification:  None of the creatures shown or mentioned in this posting are classed today as insects.  They are not in the Class Insecta:

 

I believe it goes something like this

 

Phylum:     Arthropoda

  Subphylum:    Hexapoda

      Class:                  Entognatha

            Subclass:          Zygentoma

                    Order:            Thysanura

                         Families:       Lepismatidae,  Nicoletiidae

 

The Order Zygentoma are “Three-pronged Bristletails”.     “Jumping Bristletails” (Microcoryphia), and “Two-pronged Bristletails” (Diplura) are different Orders.

 

  Variations on this are to be found in the literature.  For example, some authors treat Zygentoma as an Order, and do not use the word Thysanura.