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

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

Yes, but do we have any clue what these things actually are??? Just curious since they wander through my basement occasionally too.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

No clue. agrnmn said it was a silverfish, but I have doubts, since every silverfish I've ever seen has had six legs or less - this thing's got twelve, even if you don't count the jacked-up leg looking things on the back, which kittenpants thought might be false legs.

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

besides, I'm used to silverfish being much smaller.

Is that all!

[druidevo.livejournal.com]

It looks like a form of centiped to me, I was expecting something more like a Mantis only squared. The front end is on the right, right?

What that is...

[niveus-tigris.livejournal.com]

Having killed several of them in my own basement (where my leathersmithing bench is located) I can tell you that they are an intelligent and voracious breed of centipede. They will hunt and kill spiders in predatory competion, move quickly and seek cover when threatened. One of these buggers evaded me for months and grew to about 4" in length. Just seeing him skitter about at that size was disconcerting. Eventually I cornered and smashed him, an unpleasant end for him. Now I chase his kids...

[rougewench.livejournal.com]

Silverfish look like this. The thing in your photo has too many legs to be a silverfish.


D.

In the Order of silverfish, to be more specific

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Sort of a bigger, badder cousin (still researching)

Order Thysanura

Thysanura are usually found in moist locations around houses or out-of-doors under stones, bark and boards. They are fast run rapidly and hide in cracks and crevices. Occasionally they damage book bindings, curtains, wallpaper, etc. Silverfish can be a nuisance in houses. They are secretive and usually are most active at night.

Thysanura are wingless insects with flattened elongate bodies, long antennae and usually with three, long, tail like appendages. Mouth parts are formed for chewing. Metamorphosis is minimal (young resemble adults except for size). They are up to 3/8 inches long.

Insects in this order include silverfish and bristletail, among others.

Re: In the Order of silverfish, to be more specific

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

These are certainly more than 3/8" long. Also, they've got an even number of back "legs" - one pair is long and grasshopperish, and the rest are shorter and more like normal bug legs. It's hard to see that in this pic.

But mostly it's the number of legs that bothers me.

Re: In the Order of silverfish, to be more specific

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

http://www.myrmecos.net/insects/apterygota.html

Hope this link comes through. My vote is for Jumping Bristletail, which is sort of disturbing. An ancient and terrible bug...

A Google search turns up lots of information, but none of the sources say it'll get as huge as you all reported. However, one of them said they tend to thrive in damp basements. Yay.

Sorry

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

Not even close, man. This thing has six pairs of front legs. Not three pairs with tiny pseudopod appendages in between. Ergo, it cannot be classified as an insect, so it is *not* of the Order Thysanura. The jumping bristletail is the wrong shape, color, and doesn't have nearly enough legs or appendages.

If you took a rare breed of New Zealand centipede, and removed all of the legs after the first six pairs and super-glued them to the end of the abdomen, you'd be getting closer.

Zoom In -- check out those legs!

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

Here's a link to a larger photograph of the Atomic Mutant Bug.

[cameellie.livejournal.com]

I saw one of these and my brave beloved had to destroy it for me. I despise bugs.

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*

[teross50.livejournal.com]

Much larger numbers of every section of the insect community Many mutants being reported Is the revolution on the way?

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*

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.

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 :)