Mystery Insect

[Calxoddity]

Hi,
Found this walking up the wall the other day - never seen something like this in the house before.

Any ideas on what it is?

Regards,
Calx

[ameerat42]

Calx. Sure is an Oddity, but I can help you no end: it's not an insect. It has too many legs and body segments. I've seen one once or twice before and I think they're related to centipedes.
A Google on centipedes yields this link in the first few. http://entomology.unl.edu/images/centipedes/housecnt.jpg
This one looks close to yours. Am...

[Miaow]

is a bit of a weird looking creature :) Considereing the legs I agree centipede family :)

[ving]

that thing has far too many legs!

EEK!

[Miaow]

Appears to be known as a scutigeromorph centipede it appears looking on the net :)

http://www.ento.csiro.au/biology/centipedes/centipedeKey.html - click on the centipede key

[NikonNellie]

That centipedey thingy looks downright alien! :eek:

[old dog]

nice find. I was thinking it looked like a mutant silverfish or something.

[Calxoddity]

Appears to be known as a scutigeromorph centipede it appears looking on the net :)

http://www.ento.csiro.au/biology/centipedes/centipedeKey.html - click on the centipede key

Thanks for that! I was coming down firmly on the side of alien invasion when I first saw it...

Regards,
Calx

[juliaharwood]

Alien invasion sounds right to me, stay well away:cool:

[enduro]

I have seen these before to 6cm size.

They are mostly nocturnal and eat other insects. I think they are also known as Roman Shield Bugs, or something similar.

I had a search on the net but the link in the post above is the most authoritative.

There are a number of very good insect ID books on the market which deal with Aussie insects. I must one day broaden my library to include more such books.

[Seesee]

Used to find lots of these as a lad when out looking for other nasties in the bush, creepy thinks, a mate of mine was supposedly bitten by one on the leg and got a nasty reacttion from it, including all the hairs on his leg fell off