Strange Bug Identity

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Lamoni-Tristian

Registered Member
Strange Bug Identity - UPDATED w/ Pics

I've searched the internet for about an hour before posting this, so I suppose this means I'm desperate. ;p

Tonight I found a very interesting bug in my basement. The basement is finished, held at 25 degrees celcius, the walls are insulated with styrofoam, the ceiling insulated with pink insulation. All walls are panelled, there is a suspended ceiling.

I found this bug running across the wall, and it went behind a black curtain on one of the foundation windows(which are about 6ft above the backyard, which is lower than the front yard where the foundation starts).

The bug was about an inch long, with 12 uniform legs on both sides. The legs were coloured orange with black stripes, much like a spider. They went up to a joint, and back down to the ground. It had two, maybe three feelers at it's backside, which raised up when it was alerted. The front side had at least two feelers, maybe more. The didn't seem as big as the back ones. The body of the bug was orange-coloured, about an inch long, and didn't seem to have sections, though I didn't get a good look. It resembled a silverfish, but obviously wasn't, due to the uniform legs, while a silverfish has three accentuated legs. The bug also ran -very- quickly, about as fast as a small silver-coloured silverfish.

My father also mentioned he found a bug like that once before, in a previous home. He said while he moved through the house, it followed him. He noticed it get in a box, so he took the box and threw it out in the backyard. When he looked down, the bug was running towards him, on the porch already.

I would appreciate if anyone could identify the bug so I know what I'm dealing with here. The bug isn't preserved, it was squished with a fly swatter, and cleaned up.

-Lamoni-Tristian
 
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You have just killed the last of a very rare species that held the cure to cancer. Congrats!......

On a more serious note: where do you live? It's a bit helpful.
But so far the information you give is curious. I know of no such invertebrate with 12 legs and no segments. Assuming it did have segments, I don't think it was a centipede (it wouldn't have 12 legs on either side), but it could be a close relative (clustered together under the name Myriapods). Otherwise you have a very interesting genetic mutation on an insect, but I wouldn't think so. I also doubt it's any form of an arachnid. That's about all the information I can give you.

Someone yell at me if I'm getting it all wrong.
 
There are several orders of insects defined by the number of 'feelers' they have on their rear end.

However, insecta the class do not have 12 legs, they always have 6 legs and three body parts. All adult arthropods have segmented bodies. It's a defining feature of the phylum.

In Malaysia I've seen this sort of bug. It was about 6 inches long, grey-ish, nocturnal, horribly fast, and had far too many legs to count. I think it's the most hideous creature I've ever seen. The legs went from teh creature outwards to a joint, then down to the ground. These legs sprouted from seemingly everywhere, they even looked to be in the front and back of it. I have some video footage of the thing, unfortunately it's not on this computer, but on one 4,000 miles away. I'm willing to be that these two bugs are in the same order.


Where do you live?
 
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Roman said:
There are several orders of insects defined by the number of 'feelers' they have on their rear end.
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Yes, thank you Roman. Do kind of know that, one of the orders of which includes the common cockroach which possess 6 legs and often mates end to end...

Giving one the appearance of a 12 legged insect of the same colour as described and equally extremely nippy on the pegs.
 
That's extremely interesting. I have never even thought of how the cockroach would mate.

Lamoni-Tristian:

If this really was a cockroach, I would strongly recommend calling an exterminator. Cockroaches are disease carrying and filthy, and if two are in the house, it is very likely there are more.
 
Yes, thank you Roman. Do kind of know that, one of the orders of which includes the common cockroach which possess 6 legs and often mates end to end...

Giving one the appearance of a 12 legged insect of the same colour as described and equally extremely nippy on the pegs.
Click to expand...

I totally passed over that. You'll have to be a little less subtle. We Americans are a bit more blunt than you guys across the pond.

I took what he said he saw at face value. Describing bugs with words, especially without a proper lexicon to describe bug parts, is pretty close to impossible. Even IDing from pictures can be rough.
 
 
The reason I said it wasn't a centipede is that centipedes have an odd number of segments. I also don't think it could be two cockroaches mating because there were 12 legs on each side, not total.
 
Roman said:
I totally passed over that. You'll have to be a little less subtle. We Americans are a bit more blunt than you guys across the pond.

I took what he said he saw at face value. Describing bugs with words, especially without a proper lexicon to describe bug parts, is pretty close to impossible. Even IDing from pictures can be rough.
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:) ... Not to worry, I almost completely passed over that m'self.... ;)

But, true. Figuring a thing out from words, hardest thing to do with bugs. Even a just a snap of the smear it ended up as might yeild a few clues...

Okeydoke - if we discount the bonking cockroach theory that leaves us with millipedes and/or centipedes. Any takers....? Thinks KitNyx has covered the centipeades...
 
Sorry, I didn't even think of telling you whereabouts I am. I'm living in a small town in Ontario, Canada.

I can discount the cockroach theory since I know it's one bug, and Mr. Anonymous' bug from his first post, since it has wings.

I looked through the centipedes, and it has some resemblence to the "house centipede" pictured. Unfortunately, I've never run into a house centipede.

Good news though, I've gotten my video footage of it, and taken a few (blurry in comparison to a still camera) stills. Take a look:

(Notice: Remote linking of images isn't allowed on Bravenet, so copy and paste the link into your address bar.)

http://hicksville.bravehost.com/Pictures/strangebug1.jpg
http://hicksville.bravehost.com/Pictures/strangebug2.jpg

The second picture is more clear, but a tad farther away.

Thanks for all your support thus far,

Lamoni-Tristian
 
The links won't work due to Bravenet not allowing remote linking. Think you can put it on a throwaway page on the site so we can see?
 
right click the link

choose copy shortcut/copy link location

open a new browser and paste into the address bar

press return/go
 
Yup, that's a centipede, or at least a myriapoda. Usually not harmful. Centipedes are poisonous, but not very. I don't think anyone's ever died from a bite.

This is from http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/iiin/housece.html *edit* where they do correctly list centipedes as arthropods */edit*

"Though house centipedes are found both indoors and outdoors it is the occasional one on the bathroom or bedroom wall, or the one accidentally trapped in the bathtub, sink, or lavatory that causes the most concern. However, these locations are not where they normally originate. Centipedes prefer to live in damp portions of basements, closets, bathrooms, unexcavated areas under the house and beneath the bark of firewood stored indoors. They do not come up through the drain pipes.

House centipede control consists of drying up and cleaning, as much as possible, the areas that serve as habitat and food source for centipedes. Residual insecticides can be applied to usual hiding places such as crawl spaces, dark corners in basements, baseboard cracks and crevices, openings in concrete slabs, under shelves, around stored boxes, and so forth."
 
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Lamoni-Tristian said:
...I can discount the cockroach theory since I know it's one bug, and Mr. Anonymous' bug from his first post, since it has wings.
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:) .. Ah well, worth a shot. Must say though, if it is the House Centipede... eeeeesh!

Can't say I blame you turning it into smear. 'Orrible looking nasty.... :D
 
I don't know how reliable it is, because they call centipedes arthropods
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What's wrong with that?
Phylum: Arthropoda
Sybphylum: Myriapoda
Class: Chilopoda
 
Well, I must say-
Thank you all for your support in solving this identity crisis. ^_^

I'll be sure to follow the advice in the websites you gave if any more show up.

-Lamoni-Tristian
 
I get house centipedes in my house every so often, too. They seem mostly harmless, although I do end up killing them.
 
A house centipede. That's what I thought it was, when I read Lamoni's discription. I just hadn't a clue as to what its name was. The ones I saw in Malaysia though weren't so small. Ugh, I still get shivers thinking about it. Good to know what they're called now. Those little nightmares now have a name.

Here's a link I found on centipede bites. According to it, only one death has been caused by a centipede. A seven year old girl was bit on the head by a full grown tropical centipede in the Phillipines.

I can verify all those effects of a centipede bite, as I was a first hand witness to my dad getting bit on the back of the neck by a tropical centipede. It actually left little bloody holes where it bit, and I think he has something of a scar there from the necrosis. Took months for it to heal.
 
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