Other Free Encyclopedias » Animal Life Resource » Insects and Spiders

Silverfish and Fire Brats: Thysanura - Physical Characteristics, Behavior And Reproduction, Silverfish And Fire Brats And People, Silverfish (lepisma Saccharina): Species Accounts - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, DIET, CONSERVATION STATUS

found thysanurans ants fabrics

SILVERFISH (Lepisma saccharina): SPECIES ACCOUNTS
NO COMMON NAME (Cubacubana spelaea): SPECIES ACCOUNTS

Thysanurans are found worldwide.

Thysanurans are found in moist habitats, but a few are found in sandy deserts. They live under bark, rocks, rotting logs, and leaf litter. Some species prefer to live in caves, among ants or termites, or with people.

Thysanurans eat decaying or dried plants and animal remains. Species living with people feed on starchy materials, such as paper, cardboard, book bindings, wallpaper paste, and some fabrics. They also eat the starch used to make fabrics stiff. Species living with ants get food by stealing it from their hosts.

No species of thysanuran are threatened or endangered.

Additional Topics

Silverfish and Fire Brats: Thysanura - Physical Characteristics

Thysanurans (thigh-suh-NOOR-uhns) have no wings. Their flattened bodies typically are covered with overlapping silvery gray scales. Most species are 0.4 to 0.8 inches (10.2 to 20.3 millimeters) in length, but a few species range from 0.04 to 1.9 inches (1 to 48.3 millimeters). One fossil (FAH-suhl) thysanuran, about 350 million years old and measuring 2.36 inches (60 millimeters), is the largest s…

Silverfish and Fire Brats: Thysanura - Behavior And Reproduction

Silverfish and Fire Brats: Thysanura - Silverfish And Fire Brats And People

Silverfish and Fire Brats: Thysanura - Silverfish (lepisma Saccharina): Species Accounts

Physical characteristics: Adult silverfish measure up to 0.4 inches (10.2 millimeters) in length. Their bodies are covered with silvery scales. Geographic range: Silverfish probably originally came from tropical Asia; the species is now found living with people worldwide. Habitat: This species lives in warm, damp places in the home, especially basements, closets, bookcases, shelves, and baseboards…

Silverfish and Fire Brats: Thysanura - No Common Name (cubacubana Spelaea): Species Accounts

Physical characteristics: The long, slender body of this thysanuran grows as long as 0.47 inches (12 millimeters), without antennae or tails. The antennae are one and half times the body length, and the tails are slightly longer than the body, growing to 1.41 inches (35.8 millimeters). These thysanurans do not have eyes, and their whitish or transparent, or see-through, bodies lack scales. Geograp…

Symphylans: Symphyla - Physical Characteristics, Behavior And Reproduction, Symphylans And People, Garden Symphylan (scutigerella Immaculata): Species Account - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, DIET, CONSERVATION STATUS [next] [back] Millipedes: Diplopoda - Physical Characteristics, Geographic Range, Habitat, Behavior And Reproduction, Millipedes And People, Pill Millipede (glomeris Marginata): Species Accounts - DIET, CONSERVATION STATUS

User Comments

Your email address will be altered so spam harvesting bots can't read it easily.
Hide my email completely instead?

Cancel or

Vote down Vote up

about 4 years ago

I remember seeing insects, I thought were fire brats, near very hot areas such as coal furnaces and bakers' ovens. If these weren't fire brats, what were they? They also looked like silver fish.