Behold the Atomic Mutant!!!!!

[featherynscale]

Some of you may remember the dread tale of the Atomic Mutant Insect - Horror From Another Dimension. As it turns out, this Thing was not the only Thing of its kind. They also have them in New Mexico, where kittenpants discovered a deceased specimen and photographed it for scientific purposes. So take a look (If You Dare!) and see if you know what the hell this thing is.

(Comments now fortified with Entomological Smackdown!)

Behold the Horror:

Comments

I think we have a winner!

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

agrnmn may have found our answer:

Common House Centipede
Scutigera coleoptrata

Description. The house centipede has a very strange appearance. It is 2.5 to 4 cm long, with very long, slender antennae, and with 15 pairs of legs, also very long. In the female, the last pair of legs is more than twice the length of the body. The grayish-yellow body has 3 longitudinal dorsal stripes, and the legs are banded with white (Back, 1939). This species is in an order (Scutigeromorpha) in which all species have 15 pairs of long legs and long antennae, and are the only centipedes with compound eyes, the others having clusters of ocelli. They can readily detach their legs if they are grasped by an enemy.

We've only been finding them with their middle sets of legs missing, making this harder to identify... But if you do a google whack on the genus & species, you'll find some more pictures of these bastards.

The good news is, they eat crickets, spiders, roaches, and other annoying insects.

Re: I think we have a winner!

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Yep, that has to be them:

Still frigging weirdo bugs, but good to know that they're on our side...kinda. *shudder*

On our side?

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

We've had to deal with centipedes in our house(s) way too much. We've had them come get us in the living room, and at our old house they'd even venture onto the kitchen counter. I think I'm more inclined to coexist with the spiders; the spiders we have are less likely to go after us than the centipedes are. The centipedes are also way too big and fast for my comfort. *shudder*

Spiders vs. Centipedes

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

In our house, the spiders are actually more unwelcome than most of the other inspects. This is because we believe they are responsible for most of the bites while we sleep... we've actually developed a false entomology etymology for them based on "ass-biters"...

However, since getting the sonic dispersers, all biting seems to have stopped, and the bugs at least stay out of the bedrooms, with the exception of pillbugs which are apparently, according to featherynscale, deaf.

Re: Sonic dispersers

[matchgirl42.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad to hear those are working out.

*Shudder* you know, now that I've seen these things, I think I would prefer cockroaches, hands down, anyday. At least those I'm familiar with and can recognize on sight.

*Shudder*

Re: Sonic dispersers

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Yep, as FNS would say, you're a goddamned hero! ;)

Have fun at SPiRAL, or whatever the capitalization is for that thing... and make sure FNS does too!

Re: Sonic dispersers

[matchgirl42.livejournal.com]

*blush* I try :)

Yep, we had much fun at SPiRaL, and the usual crispiness. The Feast was absolutely FABU. Thanks :)

Missing legs

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

But my question is why are they missing all those legs? Nasty fight with a spider?

Re: Missing legs

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

Ugh... that's horrid.

It's like the large multi-legged poisonous nightmares are having gladiator battles to see which gets the honor of biting us on the ass while we sleep.