A silverfish is a small, primitive, wingless insect in the orderZygentoma. Its common name derives from the animal's silvery light grey colour, combined with the fish-like appearance of its movements. The scientific name indicates that the silverfish's diet consists of carbohydrates such as sugar or starches.
Description
Silverfish are nocturnalinsects typically long. Their abdomens taper at the end, giving them a fish-like appearance. The newly hatched are whitish, but develop a greyish hue and metallic shine as they get older. They have two long cerci and one terminal filament at the tip of the abdomen between the cerci. They also have two small compound eyes, despite other members of Zygentoma being completely eyeless, such as the family Nicoletiidae. Like other species in Apterygota, silverfish are completely wingless. They have long antennae, and move in a wiggling motion that resembles the movement of a fish. This, coupled with their appearance and silvery scales, inspires their common name. Silverfish typically live for two to eight years. Silverfish are agile runners and can outrun most of their predators. However, such running is possible only on horizontal surfaces, as they lack any additional appendages, and therefore are not fast enough to climb walls at the same speed. They also avoid light.
Before silverfish reproduce, they carry out a ritual involving three phases, which may last over half an hour. In the first phase, the male and female stand face to face, their quivering antennae touching, then repeatedly back off and return to this position. In the second phase, the male runs away and the female chases him. In the third phase, the male and female stand side by side and head to tail, with the male vibrating his tail against the female. Finally, the male lays a spermatophore, a sperm capsule covered in gossamer, which the female takes into her body via her ovipositor to fertilize her eggs. The female lays groups of fewer than 60 eggs at once, deposited in small crevices. The eggs are oval-shaped, whitish, about long, and take between two weeks and two months to hatch. A silverfish usually lays fewer than 100 eggs in her lifetime. When the nymphs hatch, they are whitish in colour, and look like smaller adults. As they moult, young silverfish develop a greyish appearance and a metallic shine, eventually becoming adults after three months to three years. They may go through 17 to 66 moults in their lifetimes, sometimes 30 in a single year—many more than most insects. Silverfish are among the few types of insect that continue to moult after reaching adulthood.
Ecology
Silverfish consume matter that contains polysaccharides, such as starches and dextrin in adhesives. These include book bindings, carpet, clothing, coffee, dandruff, glue, hair, some paints, paper, photos, plaster, and sugar. They will damage wallpaper in order to consume the paste. Silverfish can also cause damage to tapestries. Other substances they may eat include cotton, dead insects, linen, silk, leftover crumbs, or even their own exuvia. During famine, a silverfish may even consume leatherware and synthetic fabrics. Silverfish can live for a year or more without eating if water is available. Silverfish are considered household pests, due to their consumption and destruction of property. However, although they are responsible for the contamination of food and other types of damage, they do not transmit disease. Earwigs, house centipedes, and spiders such as the spitting spiderScytodes thoracica are known to be predators of silverfish. The essential oil of the Japanese cedarCryptomeria japonica has been investigated as a repellent and insecticide against L. saccharina, with promising results: filter paper impregnated with a concentration of 0.01 mg/cm of essential oil repelled 80% of silverfish, and an exposure to vapours of 0.16 mg/cm for 10 hours caused a 100% mortality rate.
Etymology
The scientific name for the species is Lepisma saccharina, due to its tendency to eat starchy foods high in carbohydrates and protein, such as dextrin. However, the insect's more common name comes from its distinctive metallic appearance and fish-like shape. While the scientific name was established by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, the common name has been in use since at least 1855.
Evolution
Together with jumping bristletails, the predecessors of silverfish are considered the earliest, most primitive insects. They evolved at the latest in mid-Devonian and possibly as early as late Silurian more than 400 million years ago. Some fossilized arthropod trackways from the Paleozoic Era, known as Stiaria intermedia and often attributed to jumping bristletails, may have been produced by silverfish.
Similar species
Other similar insect species are also known as silverfish. Two other silverfish are common in North America, Ctenolepisma longicaudata and Ctenolepisma quadriseriata. Ctenolepisma urbana is known as the urban silverfish. The Australian species most commonly referred to as silverfish is a different lepismatid, Acrotelsella devriesiana. The firebrat is like a silverfish, but with a mottled gray and brown body.
