The Silverfish (Lepisma saccharinum) is a cosmopolitan species that likes damp habitats, tends to hide in crevices and is usually found in human habitations, becoming household pests under certain conditions.

This animal was introduced or mentioned in The Last Stormtroopers, Historya Davvun, Seven Code Talkers, No Way to Seaway, Weather Dragons, Project Daejeon, Two Lights, Worldcraft, Equation, and Rescris as part of Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, Monster Hunter series, and Assassin's Creed series sequels.

Etymology

However, the insect's more common name comes from its distinctive metallic appearance and fish-like shape.

Physical Appearance

Its abdomen tapers at the end, giving it a fish-like appearance. The newly hatched are whitish, but develop a greyish hue and metallic shine as they get older. It has two long cerci and one terminal filament at the tip of the abdomen between the cerci. It also has two small compound eyes, although other members of Zygentoma are completely eyeless, such as the family Nicoletiidae.

Abilities

When idle, silverfish enter a nearby deepslate, stone, cobblestone, stone bricks, mossy stone bricks, cracked stone bricks, chiseled stone bricks block or all kinds of rocks from igneous to metamorphic rocks, transforming it into the respective infested block. They cannot infest slab and stairs of these blocks. They are also unable to infest woods.

A silverfish being freed from an infested stones of all kinds, which calls for help from other silverfish; causing them to emerge from more infested blocks.

Weaknesses

The essential oil of the Japanese cedar Cryptomeria japonica has been investigated as a repellent and insecticide against L. saccharinum, with promising results: filter paper impregnated with a concentration of 0.01 mg/cm3 of essential oil repelled 80% of silverfish, and an exposure to vapours of 0.16 mg/cm3 for 10 hours caused a 100% mortality rate.

Ecology

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 vibrating 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 0.8 mm (0.031 in) long, and take between two weeks and two months to hatch. A silverfish usually lays fewer than 100 eggs in her lifetime.

They are infamous for damaging paper-based products due to their scientific name, their diet like sugar and starches. Silverfish are able to digest cellulose by themselves, thanks to the cellulase that is produced by its midgut. They 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 exuviae (moulted exoskeleton). During famine, a silverfish may even consume leather 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 spider Scytodes thoracica are known to be predators of silverfish.

Behavior

Silverfish are harmless enough to humans but they can destroy books, old papers, wallpaper, carpets and clothes with their droppings. They also love to make unsealed pasta, oat and cereal packets their home, so you'll want to get rid of them quickly. There are relatively harmless, wingless arthropods that are often found in dark areas in buildings and the wooden pilings of seaside piers and trees.

Distribution and Habitat

Silverfishes are a cosmopolitan species, found in Africa, the Americas, Australia, Eurasia, and parts of the Pacific. They inhabit moist areas, requiring a relative humidity between 75% and 95%. In urban areas, they can be found in attics, basements, bathtubs, sinks, kitchens, old books, classrooms, and showers.

Movement Pattern: Random
Individual Type: Solo
Population Trend: Increasing
Population: ???
Locomotion: Terrestrial
Habitat: Tundra; Taiga; Montane Grasslands and Shrublands; Temperate Coniferous Forests; Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests; Temperate Deciduous Forests, Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Subtropical Coniferous Forests; Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Salt Flats; Stone Forest; Tropical Coniferous Forests; Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Grasslands; Tropical Savannas and Shrublands; Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub; Mushroom Forests; Mushroom Fields; Deserts and Xeric Shrublands; Badlands; Flooded Grasslands and Savannas; Swamp; Bayous/Billabongs; Riparian; Wetland; Mangrove Forest; Cold Bamboo Forests; Tropical Bamboo Forests; Air-breathing Coral Reefs; Graveyard Vale; Mountain; Karst Cave; Karst Spring; Lush Cavern; Volcanic Crater Lake; Lava Field; Lava Tube; Volcano; Lava Trench; Basalt Delta; Warm Ghost Town; Cold Ghost Town; Ruined Skyscraper.
Earth:
- Extant (Resident): Afghanistan; Albania; Algeria; American Samoa; Andorra; Angola; Anguilla; Antarctica; Antigua and Barbuda; Aotearoa/New Zealand; Argentina; Armenia; Aruba; Australia; Austria; Azerbaijan; Åland Islands; Bahamas; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belarus; Belgium; Belize; Benin; Bermuda; Bhutan; Bolivia; Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (Sint Eustatius, Saba, Bonaire); Bosnia and Herzegovina; Botswana; Bouvet Island; Brazil; Britain (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland); British Indian Ocean Territory; Brunei; Bulgaria; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cabo Verde; Cambodia; Cameroon; Canada; Cayman Islands; Central African Republic; Chad; Chile; China; Christmas Island; Cocos Islands; Colombia; Comoros; Republic of the Congo; The Democratic Republic of the Congo; Cook Islands; Costa Rica; Croatia; Cuba; Curacao; Cyprus; Czechia; Côte d'Ivoire; Denmark; Disputed Territory; Djibouti; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Egypt; El Salvador; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Estonia; Eswatini; Ethiopia; Falkland Islands; Faroe Islands; Fiji; Finland; France; French Guiana; French Polynesia; French Southern Territories; Gabon; Gambia; Georgia; Germany; Ghana; Gibraltar; Greece; Greenland; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Guam; Guatemala; Guernsey; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; Haiti; Heard Island and McDonald Islands; Holy See (Vatican City State); Honduras; Hong Kong; Hungary; Iceland; India; Indonesia; Iran; Iraq; Ireland; Isle of Man; Israel; Italy; Jamaica; Japan; Jersey; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Kiribati; North Korea; South Korea; Kuwait; Kyrgyzstan; Laos; Latvia; Lebanon; Lesotho; Liberia; Libya; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macao; Madagascar; Malawi; Malaysia; Maldives; Mali; Malta; Marshall Islands; Martinique; Mauritania; Mauritius; Mayotte; Mexico; Micronesia; Moldova; Monaco; Mongolia; Montenegro; Montserrat; Morocco; Mozambique; Myanmar; Namibia; Nauru; Nepal; Netherlands; New Caledonia; Nicaragua; Niger; Nigeria; Niue; Norfolk Island; North Macedonia; Northern Mariana Islands; Norway; Oman; Pakistan; Palau; Palestine; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Paraguay; Peru; Philippines; Pitcairn; Poland; Portugal; Puerto Rico; Qatar; Romania; Russia; Rwanda; Réunion Island; Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Martin Island; Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Samoa; San Marino; Sao Tome and Principe; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Serbia; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Singapore; Sint Maarten (Dutch); Slovakia; Slovenia; Solomon Islands; Somalia; South Africa; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; South Sudan; Spain; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Suriname; Svalbard and Jan Mayen; Sweden; Switzerland; Syrian Arab Republic; Taiwan, Province of China; Tajikistan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Timor-Leste; Togo; Tokelau; Tonga; Trinidad and Tobago; Tunisia; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Turks and Caicos Islands; Tuvalu; Uganda; Ukraine; United Arab Emirates; United States of America (USA); United States Minor Outlying Islands; Uruguay; Uzbekistan; Vanuatu; Venezuela; Viet Nam; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S.; Wallis and Futuna; Western Sahara; Yemen; Zambia; Zimbabwe

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Lore

Pre-Bereshit

The predecessors of silverfish, along with those of jumping bristletails, are considered the earliest and 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.

Gallery

Foreign Languages

Earth

Belarusian: Люспеница (Lyuspenitsa)
Czech: Rybenka domácí
English: Silverfish, fish moth
Español: Pececillo de plata
Suomi: Sokeritoukka
Nordfriisk: Glüper
Français: Poisson d'argent
Magyar: Ezüstös pikkelyke
Italiano: Pesciolino d'argento
Indonesian: Gegat, ikan-perak, ikan-prata
Iloko: Ikan-pirak, gegat
Nihon: セイヨウシミ (Seiyoushimi)
Maori: Ngārara-hiriwa, ngārara-ika, ngārara-whare
Nederlands: Zilvervisje
Polski: Rybik (Рыбик)
Português: Peixinho-de-prata
Russian: Обыкновенная чешуйница (Obyknovennaya cheshuynitsa/Obyknovennaya češuynitsa)
Svenska: Silverfisk
Tagalog: Isdang pilak, isdang gamu-gamo, urbanong isdang pilak, gagat, panglungsod na isdang pilak, pating ng karpet, pating ng alpombra, pating ng tapete
Türkçe: Gümüşçün

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