Saturday 2 January 2016

All that Shimmers is not Silver

Especially when it's a silvery wingless insect. Lepisma saccharina, commonly known as silverfish after the way their bodies glisten a silvery colour in the right lighting and the way they wriggle like a fish when moving.

I found this dead one .....
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Body length 10mm

.... and put it under the microscope.

Head end:
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Tail end:
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The body is covered in tiny scales which reflect the light:
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They are very fast movers on the flat. Too fast for most predators and as they like to stay in dark, damp places they are often too fast to be spotted by us.

3 comments:

  1. I occasionally see one on our bathroom floor in the middle of the night John. I can't say that seeing you 'under the microscope' version has helped though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Easier to appreciate their beauty through a lens!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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