Lepisma saccharina

The silverfish (Lepisma saccharina), also known as lobster, string silver, flour silverfish, sugar silverfish, trace, eat saints, baseboard bug, water cockroach, sardineta or chiripa, is a cosmopolitan species of thrips insect, ancient order today reclassified into two, of which this species is from the order Zygentoma (Thysanura s.s.) of the family Lepismatidae and genus Lepisma. It is agile and has a strong negative phototaxis (it flees from light), which makes its observation rare. The species name derives from the metallic gray sheen of its body. Silverfish live on various materials, such as mold, paper, cardboard, and starchy foods, such as book binding glue or clothing size.

Appearance

The length of a silverfish, not including its limbs, is about one centimeter. The metallic shine of its body is due to its silver scales, which appear after its third molt. The nymphs of the first phases or stages are whitish. It has two long antennae on the head and three other appendages, below the back of the head, similar in the back, a caudal filament that is actually the tenth and last segment of the abdomen and two cerci.

Development

Depending on its living condition, a silverfish requires at least four months to become an adult, and can sometimes require more than three years. At room temperature, it can grow within a year. It can live anywhere between two and eight years of age. A silverfish molts approximately eight times throughout its life; but due to its constant growth, it can shed more than four times a year. When the temperature is between 25 and 30°C, the female can lay around one hundred eggs, preferably in crevices and crevices. It is impossible for a silverfish to reproduce in a cold, dry environment.

It lives in damp and dark places, most frequently in old buildings, or among books and papers in houses.

Food

The silverfish's favorite foods are those that contain starch or polysaccharides such as dextrin from the adhesives used in book binding, gelatin from photographs or silicone. Also old paper, sugar, hair, dandruff and dirt. But he will not disdain substances such as cotton, linen, silk, including artificial silk, dead insects and crustaceans or his own exuvia (shed skin). Driven by its hunger, a silverfish can even treat itself to fur clothing and fabrics made from certain artificial fibers. However, like many insects, it is capable of interrupting its vital activity for several months without suffering noticeable damage.

L. saccharinacan digest cellulose because it is capable of producing cellulase, an enzyme that degrades cellulose, which is extremely rare in animals; The vast majority of herbivorous animals, including xylophagous insects (wood eaters), have symbiotic microorganisms in the digestive tract that carry out said digestion. Only two animals are known capable of producing cellulase,L. saccharina and the bivalve mollusk Teredo navalis, which drills wood.

Playback

Due to its nocturnal nature, silverfish fertilization is only recently known. Silverfish do not copulate, but the male produces a spermatophore that attaches to a taut thread hanging from some vertical object. It leads the female through courtship maneuvers to stumble upon the spermatophore. The female picks it up with her hand and takes it to the genital opening, where she introduces it and fertilization occurs.

Predators

One of the natural predators of the silverfish is the insect known as the earwig (Forficula auricularia), as well as spiders.