Odd insect

I don't know if this is anything special or not, but it's certainly nothing I've ever seen. I thought I'd been bit by just about everything known to man, so when my friend told me about it I figured I could easily tell her where to find them, how bad they bite, and what they taste like (well maybe not that last part, although in the course of a survival course i took I did get to taste test ants).

So here's the pic, and if anyone can help me look smart here i would really appreciate it.

Definitely something in the centipede family. From temperate climates maybe?

Hmmm....how big is that? I can't tell what exactly it's laying on. If it's really small, I've seen something like it before, in West TX. As far as I know, those were mainly just ugly looking, nothing worth worrying about. Some type of centipede? That's my guess at least, and I know it's not much help.

Hum,

I cant be sure without tasting it.......... but it looks like a Scutigera coleoptrata.

Bug police records indicate that it may sometimes goes by the AKA.....House Centipede.

Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Superclass Myriapoda
Class Chilopoda (Centipedes)
Order Scutigeromorpha (House Centipedes)
Family Scutigeridae
Genus Scutigera
Species coleoptrata (House Centipede)

More commonly known as: Eeewww Yuck....Get it OUT OF HERE!!!


THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS has some good info on it, but sadly no recipies.

Its cylindrical body can grow to an inch or more in length. It is yellowish brown and bears three dark longitudinal stripes dorsally. The 15 pairs of slender, banded legs increase in length from the front to the back of the body. The last pair is much longer than the others. The legs give the animal the appearance of great size.

S. coleoptrata is probably indigenous in the Mediterranean region, but it has spread through much of Europe, Asia, and North America. In the United States, it has spread from the southern states and Mexico. It reached Pennsylvania in 1849, New York in 1885, and Massachusetts about 1890, and it is now extends westward to the Rocky Mountains and beyond (Lewis 1981).

Although house centipedes are not aggressive, and their jaws are not powerful enough to break human skin easily, they will sometimes bite in self-defense. Severe swelling and pain can result from the venom injected, but in most cases the bite is no worse than the sting of a bee.

Eeewww yuck It ran across my toes!

My friend is in the Baltimore area, so if this pic was taken by her and not given to her by someone else, that's where it is. I had to shrink it for upload. There are hairs on the ground next to it, there are some short apparently human hairs next to the insect. By looking at the curve of the hairs I estimate their length at 1 or 2 inches. That would make this insect 3-5 inches (body only) in my estimation. I'll be confirming this with my friend ASAP.

Furthermore, that background appears to be bathroom tile, and the insect is occupying 1/4 of a tile roughly, and is about half as long as the tile. Does anyone here know the standard size of a tile? I'm thinking 1 foot? If 1 foot is accurate, this thing is about 6 inches hind leg to head, and 3 inches at the body.

So that's my best estimate until my friend returns my email.

I don't know my insects too well. I didn't think centipedes had long legs like that. I count 13 or 14 legs per side and even in the big picture i see no indication of smaller legs.

Originally posted by makeitso
More commonly known as: Eeewww Yuck....Get it OUT OF HERE!!!

Sorry for the one line but damn that was funny.

I can confidently state the obvious:

"That is not an insect or arachnid".

Beyond that, it's anyone's guess in the bug hunt.

Oh, and...

"Get that thing out of here!"

Makeitso hit it right on the head: that's exactly what I was thinking it was. Although it was more commonly known in my house as "Kill it! Kill it!"

Eewwww
I cant even believe I am even researching this........

The Vagabond
My friend is in the Baltimore area

This venomous critter has been recently spotted in that general vicinity.
The local bug police have been notified.

The Vagabond
that background appears to be bathroom tile.
Does anyone here know the standard size of a tile?

Bath floor tile commonly comes in 1.5 inch, 4 inch, 12 inch, and 18 inch squares. However, I have tile on my bath floor that is very similar, (only nicer ), and I am pretty sure that it is 1.5 inch in the picture.

The Vagabond
I didn't think centipedes had long legs like that.

See quote below

www.uark.edu...
The 15 pairs of slender, banded legs increase in length from the front to the back of the body. The last pair is much longer than the others.

I think you are looking at the picture upside down. See Below images




best of luck

I don't have the pic anymore but I had the exact same "thing" in my unit a few months ago. It was about 15cm long, big long legs, striped. I can't remember what happened. I think it ended up waddling off somewhere. Freakiest centipede I've ever seen though :S

I am in Michigan, and I have seen something similiar before. It was a huuuuge cenitipede I thought. It was on the wall of a stairwell in an apartment I lived in. I thought I should kill it, so I looked at my shoe, looked at that thing, and thought uh uh. It was seriously about 5 inches long and at least an inch and a half wide, then the legs..ugh it was the biggest creature I had seen. I was told at a later date that it was some type of wood centipede, but I never verified that, and it was gone when I got home from work. Creepy thing though!

did this forum become interesting and educational? You're really breaking up the tradition of nonsensical tabloid-threads around here.

Well done The Vagabond! Thanks also to makeitso for the info & fun explanation.

How about this critter?



Time to call...




[edit on 20-5-2005 by saint4God]

Venomous? Not an insect? ....


I've seen these critters countless times. and they do NOT "waddle". They creep slowly unless they are frightened...and then my god...get onto something. They are the fastest insect i've seen, they can run atleast 2 feet a second.

I've seen them alot, and actually watched a show on them on the discovery channel. They like cold dark places, they usually live in your air vents in your house/under your tv stand/under your couch.

AhAHha that is the first thing i thought of when i saw one for the first time.... "they have strips like those things from starship troopers!"

But anyways...centipedal family, not venemous, just fast....and i mean FAST...you'll understand when you come across one. 15 cm long? .......the biggest one i've killed was 4 cm long.

Originally posted by The Vagabond
I don't know if this is anything special or not, but it's certainly nothing I've ever seen. I thought I'd been bit by just about everything known to man, so when my friend told me about it I figured I could easily tell her where to find them, how bad they bite, and what they taste like (well maybe not that last part, although in the course of a survival course i took I did get to taste test ants).

So here's the pic, and if anyone can help me look smart here i would really appreciate it.

I have seen a few, and kill some them around basement.

It looks weird, I thought that it was some artificial or spying bug....

LOL It's a BUG fohgodsake...just KILL it!

While you're at it, work on getting rid of this guy...okay?

centi = 100. pede = feet. I absolutely agree with you guys that this thing is a house centipede, but why in the bloody, bloody, ultra gore-ridden, bloody hell does it only have 30 legs and get called a centipede?


Now here's the big question, I've seen a couple people mention 5cm centipedes, and that's roughly my estimate of this little sucker's size, but they're supposed to only be an inch in the body? Are you guys talking about leg to leg or thorax only?

About the size of this one- these almost definately aren't 1.5 inch tiles. Look at the pattern- it's not squares- the squares are part of the line pattern on a larger tile as I see it. I've never seen quarter-patterned tile smaller than a foot. I fully expect that when my friend returns my email that she will reveal this thing to be about 6 inches leg to leg, so maybe 2 or 3 in the body. Is that too far above average for these things?

Oh, this should make you feel better- I'm under the impression that this pic is from the dorm bathrooms at a freakin university! I have seen SDSU (where they serve brittle, grey-green beef in the chow hall) and I wasn't impressed, but this would take my opinion of the college tuition issue to a whole new low!

Last thing- if it's not technically an insect, sorry for the misnomer. It's been a long time since biology class. I can remember how sex works (in the broad strokes anyway- I don't get as much practice as I'd like) but that's about it for my biological knowledge.

To end on the SST note- I wouldn't try to step on that sucker either. I'd definately go with the nuke.

I was sitting on the couch this weekend and felt something on my arm. It was the critter pictured in the initial post! I picked up the couch cushion and let him go outside. S/he was more scared than I was I think. It got me thinking about this post and wanted to say, "yeah, they're on the east-coast U.S" too.

Originally posted by saint4GodS/he was more scared than I was I think.

Like my grandpa has always been fond of saying, "he was scared and I was glad of it."

My friend finally emailed me back on the size of the thing- 2 inches in the body. Not quite as big as I would have guessed. The tile size is not standard because the picture was taken on a staircase, hence the contextual illusion which lead me to overestimate the size.