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

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.

Are y'sure what you saw was actually one single insect?
How about this? (http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/schal/program/re/po.html)

The mention of rear facing feelers sounds a bit iffy... ;)

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?

There are several orders of insects defined by the number of 'feelers' they have on their rear end.

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.

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.

I know you said it was not a centipede, but what you describes seemed like one. Note they do not really have 100 legs. See pictures:
http://www.myriapoda.org/chilopoda/Otostigminae/index.html
http://www.myriapoda.org/chilopoda/Scolopendrinae/index.html
http://www.sheepmania.com/nat/insect/chilopoda/centipede_03_07_07.html
http://www.sheepmania.com/nat/insect/chilopoda/index.html

Also, this amazed me...parental instincts in an arthropod.
http://www.sheepmania.com/nat/insect/chilopoda/centipedeyoung_03_02_07.html

- KitNyx

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.

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.


:) ... 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."

...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.


:) .. 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

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.

Woohoo! I am an idiot! Thanks Pete! One think I would remember biology better.

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 (http://www.geocities.com/lflank/centipedehandling.html) 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.

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


This thread, these pictures ... uh.
I think I now understand why people start believing in UFO's. No offense, but it took me an extraterrestrial amount of patience and effort to see a bug in those pictures. And even then it looked like something out of Mulder's pocket.

Water:

Ha! I love that.

Roman:

They are even smaller here in NY. Hardly over an inch and a half at largest, sometimes as small as a quarter of one.

I've recently found another one. This one I caught in a jam jar. Got some very detailed up-close pictures with my dig video cam.

Indeed, it is a house centipede with 15 pairs of legs. This one is going to be luckier than the other, as I'm going to throw him out in the bush wilderness behind my backyard. Hopefully he'll get the message and not come back.

-Lamoni

This thread, these pictures ... uh.
I think I now understand why people start believing in UFO's. No offense, but it took me an extraterrestrial amount of patience and effort to see a bug in those pictures. And even then it looked like something out of Mulder's pocket.




You can have a better view if you enchance the images with some graphics software by adding contrast and brightness.

So I'm sitting in my dorm, drunk and naked, and I see a blotch on my wall. First thought is, I dont rember that there, maybe it'sa bug.

Looks sort of like a moth. As I get closer to it, curious as to its identity, I hope it's not one of those house centipedes.

Then I get closer sitl, and I see all its ugly legs played and crawling. I don't even know wha to do know. I'm all creeped out. creeped out from my groin everywhere.

What a horrid beastie. think I'm gonna smasch it to hell.

oh dear lord those creatures are unbleiveably disgusting. it moves and I hate it,

fear and loathing fear and loathing.

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.-Lamoni-Tristian

Well, only you can know for sure. Why don't you start by going to a nearby library or bookstore (Nobles Books) and paging through their field guides about insects, arthropods, and spiders. First try to find one similar, then jot down te scientific name and use that as a basis for an internet search. That might help. 12 uniform legs. hmmm. I've never heard of a twelve legged centipede, but just perhaps somehow part of the remiaing legs were bitten off by a predator. I've also heard of frogs with 5,6,7 or more legs from mutations?

For SciFi, here's a possibility:
"The behir is a twelve-legged reptilian creature, with the head of a crocodile, the body of a great serpent and covered with metallic blue scales, used by the drow as a fighting beast. It has a voracious appetite for flesh, especially humanoid, and is often only kept by races who keep slaves (the old and infirm of which are often fed to them). They are 2 to 4 hex-long figures (depending on ST - i.e. 10 ST per hex in length). They attack by biting for 1+2 damage in regular or (preferred) HTH combat. In HTH combat, the behir can also strike with 1d6 limbs for 1-1 damage each (roll 1d6 each round to see how many limbs free the behir has to fight with.).
A behir can also breath a bolt of lightning for 1 die damage per fST expended, but can only store up enough charge for 4 dice per hour.
They naturally occur in deep caverns near water, where they hunt and kill large quantities of cavefish by electrifying the water. Drow are the only race known to cultivate them extensively."
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~casliber/tft/intellimonsters.html

For SciFi, here's a possibility:
Wash your mouth out!

Fantasy ≠ SciFi

The house centipede hatches with four legs and works its way up to 15 pairs.

from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_centipede)


House centipedes have as few as four pairs of legs when they are hatched. With each molting, they gain a new pair.

The house centipede hatches with four legs and works its way up to 15.


If it has 15 legs, an odd number, is it then not limping?

Wash your mouth out!

Fantasy ≠ SciFi
Cool off Pete. You read what I posted BEFORE the scifi. I just added that short article in as a joke. Kind,ve kilarious that there's also a 12 legged monster out there too, isn't. ha ha Just a joke. lighten up.

If it has 15 legs, an odd number, is it then not limping?

Hahahaha!

Yes, yes it would be. I meant to say it has 15 pairs.

I've never seen a centipede limp before and even spiders with five legs don't limp.

K i really need some help im a countryboy(woodsman) all my life i've found a bug i've never seen before. Really will blow your mind looks like a lobster crossed with ant body. Only have my phone to text pics not up to date on how to use new technology but


could possibly email. Its still alive help please. Email at bday5513@gmail.com if u can be some help.

K i really need some help im a countryboy(woodsman) all my life i've found a bug i've never seen before. Really will blow your mind looks like a lobster crossed with ant body. Only have my phone to text pics not up to date on how to use new technology but


could possibly email. Its still alive help please. Email at bday5513@gmail.com if u can be some help.

If it looks something like this:
http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/images/ipm1020molecricket.jpg
It's a mole-cricket
Lots of different species; do an image search.
It's a burrower, so you may just have not seen it on the surface before.
The ones I've seen around here are gray and fuzzy.

looks like a lobster crossed with ant body.


Does it taste like chicken? :shrug:

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.I guess it has been identified as a centipede, which together with millipedes and a few odds and ends makes up the arthropod subphylum Myriapoda. They don't have a standard number of legs and range from fewer than ten to more than seven hundred.

Without a picture I was going to suggest that it might be an isopod, an order of crustaceans, which are also a subphylum of arthropods. All isopods have 14 legs. Most crustaceans are aquatic (and many are delicious: lobsters, shrimp, crabs, etc. ;)), but the isopods, which include woodlice and pillbugs or "roly-poly bugs," are a wildly successful clade of terrestrial crustaceans, encompassing more than ten thousand species.
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.Actually, cockroaches are fastidious creatures who spend more time cleaning themselves than cats. If you have cockroaches it's because they found food lying around, so you or someone in your neighborhood is the slob!

Cockroaches are hardy, able to survive a long time without food and even capable of enduring freezing temperatures. They may be somewhat more intelligent than the average insect, but their real advantage is the use of chemicals to communicate, coordinating swarm behavior that can be quite a challenge to deal with.

Virtually all common insecticides are lethal to cockroaches, and since they are likely coming from somewhere else rather than breeding in your house, an expensive one-time extermination may not be the proper response, unless you can get everyone on your block to participate in the fumigation.

What you have to do is find the slob in your neighborhood whose housekeeping is so poor that it attracts cockroaches. Once you fumigate or exterminate him ;), then if you are just diligent about not leaving food lying around (including dishes of soft pet food, "cockroach heaven") and keeping your trash sealed, they'll go find another house with more for them to eat. Then use malathion or any common bug spray to kill off the stragglers.

If you want you can lay out boric acid trails. This kills them by dehydration rather than biochemistry, so they can't evolve an immunity to it. It's harmless to mammals and birds, it is lethal to virtually all insects and other arthropods, and it doesn't smell.

Or you can let them live, as it is their land and not yours.
They're probably talking about what a horrible human infestation they've been having lately.