| Fourlined Silverfish (Ctenolepisma lineata (Fabricius, 1775)) |
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Scientific name: Ctenolepisma lineata (Fabricius, 1775) Common name: Fourlined Silverfish French name: Order: Zygentoma Family: Lepismatidae Wingspan : 8 to 10 mm excluding antennae and appendages. Biotope: Under rocks and bark. Geographic area: Worldwide except polar regions with very cold climates. Observation period : All year round. |
Insects of the Zygentoma order are primitive wingless insects with elongated bodies ending in two cerci generally located on each side of a longer paracercus. The prothorax, located toward the front, is longer than the mesothorax that follows. The eyes are small (or missing) and located on the side of the head. Two long, thin, flexible antennae are inserted at eye level. For information, insects in the related Microcoryphia order have a shorter prothorax than the mesothorax, leaving the head less visible. There are two large, contiguous eyes on the front of the head with three ocelli below. The Fourlined Silverfish is generally beige-brown in colour with black bands across the upper side. The circumference of the body is hairy. The cerci are quite long. The last (10th) segment of the abdomen is subtriangular in shape. The Silverfish (Lepisma sacharina) differs in the colour of the scales that cover its body and give it a metallic appearance. Ctenolepisma ciliata and Ctenolepisma longicaudata have the last segment of the abdomen truncated at its tip and therefore shaped more like a trapezium than a triangle. |
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The hairs surrounding the body are only visible in the unreduced photo. The antennae have been sectioned. The black bands on the upper side of the body and the last subtriangular abdominal segment allow us to identify Ctenolepisma lineata. |
André Bon March 2025