Silverfish
The silverfish is a tiny silvery grey insect with no wings at all. It has long feelers on its head and three thin tails at the back. When it runs, it wiggles just like a little fish swimming, and that is how it got its name.
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Fun facts
It loves damp places like bathrooms, basements and kitchens, and it hides from the light.
Its scientific name comes from the word for sugar, because it likes sweet and starchy food.
If it loses a feeler or one of its tails, it can grow a new one in about four weeks.
It keeps shedding its skin even when it is grown up, sometimes 30 times in one year.
A baby silverfish is white when it hatches and turns silvery grey as it grows.
Most asked questions about Silverfish
?Is a silverfish dangerous?
No. It does not bite or carry disease, but it can damage paper, books and wallpaper.
?What do silverfish eat?
Things with starch and sugar, like paper, glue, crumbs and dandruff.
?How big is a silverfish?
Usually about 7 to 10 millimetres long, about as long as your fingernail.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lepisma saccharinum
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Other insects
- Family
- Lepismatidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Zygentoma > Lepismatidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Silverfish (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Christian Fischer. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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