A silverfish is not a fish!
Last weekend while hiking at Twin Falls State Park with some coworkers, we had finished photographing the waterfalls and stopped by a small river to take some shots. I quickly got out my macro lens and started looking under logs and brush to see what I could find. The vast majority of my macro photography is from my backyard, so this was a major treat for me.
Sure enough, after turning over a log I saw something interesting moving. I knew immediately from the shape of it what I had found, even though I had never seen one before.
This is none other than the silverfish. The silverfish is a very primitive insect that many people know as a pest in their house that east book bindings. While I have never found one in my house, I was delighted to find this one in nature.
After taking shots of the silverfish and watching it disappear into some brush, I rushed with my camera over to my coworkers and mentioned that I had shot a silverfish! One of them looked at me rather strange (as he had not seen me anywhere near the river) and asked to see the shot. When I showed him, the reaction was “that is not a fish!”.
I’m not sure why they get this name. As I understand, the nymphs of the silverfish are aquatic, so perhaps that is where they get the “fish” part. Some species are also silver, though this one is not. There are also other names for silverfish including firebrats and bristletails. Firebrats are a bit different I believe, but they all belong to the same family – Thysanura.
Interestingly enough, although all of my books include the silverfish, none of them say much that is interesting about it. They are best known for eating flour, clothing, and book bindings in the home but little is mentioned about what the eat outdoors. I did find that centipedes and earwigs prey on them. This is interesting as earwigs are about the same size – but nature doesn’t always play fair.
Overall it was very excited to get another checkmark in the insect column. I also found it interesting to look for insects in an environment different than what I am used to. I already have a good idea where to find things in my yard, but I have a much more difficult time in a forest where I’m not sure what I will find.
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Tags: bristletail, insect, macro, photography, silverfish
Those are nasty little buggers when you get them in your house. A little diatomaceous earth seems to do the trick to get rid of them.