All Topics  
Silverfish

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Silverfish
 
 
  Topics Silverfish Topic Home

Lepisma saccharina (commonly called the fishmoth, urban silverfish, or just silverfish) is a small, wingless insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
 typically measuring from a half to one inch (12–25 mm). Its common name
Common name

A common name is a name in general use within a community . A common name is not necessarily a commonly used name.Many of the conventions and traditions described in this article are based on the English language, and thus may not apply to common names in other languages....
 derives from the animal's silvery blue colour, combined with the fish-like appearance of its movements, while the scientific name indicates the silverfish's diet of carbohydrate
Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates or saccharides are the most abundant of the four major classes of biomolecules. They fill numerous roles in living things, such as the storage and transport of energy and structural components ....
s such as sugar
Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many other sources....
 or starch
Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
es.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Silverfish'
Start a new discussion about 'Silverfish'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Recent Posts

I have had these framed butterflies for over five years. I saw them this afternoon and found my stri...








Encyclopedia


Lepisma saccharina (commonly called the fishmoth, urban silverfish, or just silverfish) is a small, wingless insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
 typically measuring from a half to one inch (12–25 mm). Its common name
Common name

A common name is a name in general use within a community . A common name is not necessarily a commonly used name.Many of the conventions and traditions described in this article are based on the English language, and thus may not apply to common names in other languages....
 derives from the animal's silvery blue colour, combined with the fish-like appearance of its movements, while the scientific name indicates the silverfish's diet of carbohydrate
Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates or saccharides are the most abundant of the four major classes of biomolecules. They fill numerous roles in living things, such as the storage and transport of energy and structural components ....
s such as sugar
Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many other sources....
 or starch
Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
es. It belongs to the basal
Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
 insect order
Order (biology)

In Biological classification used in biology, the order is a taxonomic rank between class and family . The superorder is a rank between class and order....
 Thysanura
Thysanura

The insects of the order Thysanura, usually referred to as silverfish, may also be called bristletails, from their three long caudal filaments....
, a group estimated to have existed for over 300 million years, at least since the Paleozoic Era.

Habitat


As with many colorless or nearly colorless invertebrates, silverfish inhabit dark areas like within kitchen cupboards of houses.

An eyeless species of silverfish, or a close relative, was discovered in January 2006 in caves in Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park

Sequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada , east of Visalia, California, in the United States of America. It was established in 1890 as the second U.S....
, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
.

Diet


The favorite food of silverfish is any matter that contains starch or polysaccharide
Polysaccharide

Polysaccharides are relatively complex carbohydrates. They are polymers made up of many monosaccharides joined together by glycosidic bonds. They are therefore very large, often branched, macromolecules....
s, such as dextrin
Dextrin

Dextrins are a group of low-molecular-weight carbohydrates produced by the hydrolysis of starch. Dextrins are mixtures of linear a--linked D-glucose polymers starting with an a- bond....
 in adhesive
Adhesive

Adhesive or glue is a compound in a liquid or semi-liquid state that adhesion or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or Chemical synthesis sources....
s. These include glue
Glue

This is a list of various types of adhesive. Historically, the term "glue" only referred to protein colloids prepared from animal flesh. The meaning has been extended to refer to any fluid adhesive....
, book bindings, paper
Paper

Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, photos, sugar
Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many other sources....
, hair
Hair

Hair is a protein filament that epidermal growth from hair follicle deep within the dermis. The fine, soft hair found on many nonhuman mammals is typically called fur; wool is the characteristically curly hair found on sheep and goats....
, and dandruff
Dandruff

Dandruff is due to the excessive shedding of dead skin cells from the scalp. As it is normal for skin cell s to die and flake off, a small amount of flaking is normal and in fact quite common....
. Silverfish can also cause damage to books, tapestries
Tapestry

Tapestry is a form of textile art. It is Weaving by hand on a vertical loom. It is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike cloth weaving where both the warp and the weft threads may be visible....
, and textile
Textile

A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by Spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn....
s. Silverfish will commonly graze in and around showers, baths, and sinks on the cellulose
Cellulose

File:Cellulose Sessel.svgCellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand ? linked D-glucose units....
 present in many shampoos, shaving foams and so on. Apart from these cases, the damage caused by silverfish is negligible and they have no direct effect on human health beyond psychological distress to those who are frightened or disgusted by their appearance, or to those whose books have been destroyed by the creatures. Other substances that may be eaten include cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
, linen
Linen

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
, silk
Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from Pupa#Cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity ....
 and synthetic fibers, and dead insects or even its own exuvia
Exuvia

Exuvia is a term used in biology to describe the remains of an exoskeleton that is left after an arthropod has ecdysis. The exuvia of an animal can be important to biologists as it can often be used identify the species of the animal and even its sex....
 (moulted exoskeleton
Exoskeleton

An exoskeleton is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal endoskeleton of, for example, a human skeleton....
). During famine, a silverfish may even attack leather
Leather

Leather is a material created through the tanning of rawhides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. The tanning process converts the putrescible skin into a durable, long-lasting and versatile natural material for various uses....
ware and synthetic fabrics. In extreme cases, silverfish may live for a year without eating. Silverfish can be found anywhere in homes including, but not limited to, garages, closets, underneath beds, couches, electrical appliances such as keyboards and generally preferring dark areas.

Reproduction and growth


The reproduction of silverfish is preceded by a "love dance", involving three phases, which may last over half an hour. In the first phase, the male and female stand face to face, their trembling antennae touching, then repeatedly back off and return to this position. In the second phase the male runs away and the female chases him. In the third phase the male and female stand side by side and head-to-tail, with the male vibrating his tail against the female. Finally the male lays a spermatophore
Spermatophore

A spermatophore is a capsule or mass created by males of various animal species, containing spermatozoa and transferred in entirety to the female's ovipore during copulation....
, a sperm capsule covered in gossamer
Gossamer

Gossamer can be:* Common name for spider silk* A very light, sheer, gauze-like cloth, see textile manufacturing terminology*Gossamer A novel by Lois Lowry...
, which the female takes into her body via her ovipositor
Ovipositor

The ovipositor is an organ used by some animals for oviposition, i.e. the laying of Egg . It consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages formed to transmit the egg, to prepare a place for it, and to place it properly....
 to fertilize the eggs she will lay later on.

Juvenile silverfish are white in color.

Under laboratory conditions, silverfish may go through between 17 and 66 molts, much more than usual for an insect. Silverfish are one of the rare species of insect that continue to molt after mating.

Predation


Earwig
Earwig

Earwigs is the common name given to the insect order Dermaptera characterized by membranous insect wing folded underneath short leathery forewings ....
s, house centipede
House centipede

Scutigera coleoptrata , is a yellowish-grey centipede with 15 pairs of legs. Originally endemic to the Mediterranean region, the species has spread to other parts of the world, where it usually lives in human homes....
s, and (in rare cases) spiders are known to be predators of silverfish.

External links


At