# Insect identification, or, how I may never sleep again... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2017, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566 "2017-08-01T12:01:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/41 "2017-08-02T01:11:22Z")
We have oddles of these cute little millipede things here. They’re about the color and shape of earthworms, sorta brick red. The babies are tiny (of course) and the really big ones are about 2" long. Most are more like 1 to 1-1/2". Big enough to see easily, but not big enough to be scary even for kids. In all they’re pretty benign little brown tubes. But they each have about 1 zillion little hairlike legs that make the most fascinating wave motion as they walk. The critter progresses forwards and density waves of legs also progress forwards. It’s the same weird effect as a Michael Jackson Moonwalk where his legs appear to be walking forwards while his whole body is moving backwards. But inversed. The overall effect of the legs looks like they should be propelling the critter backwards but instead it’s going forwards. Since you can’t tell one end from the other to begin with, it’s odd looking to say the least. It seems the lizards love these things. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/42 "2017-08-02T01:24:27Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Some of you need to be desensitized. You could do this by visiting me on the island of Hawaii. Last night I watched a pas de deux between a lizard and a roach on my bedroom wall before I shut out the light. On my run this morning I counted about 20 centipedes slithering on the roadside. > > It’s the price we pay for living in tropical climes. [![](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--oXeBxUMN--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/vactifnuz70evcyxbe95.gif) ](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--oXeBxUMN--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/vactifnuz70evcyxbe95.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/43 "2017-08-02T02:31:24Z")
> [@Trancephalic](#): > > [Oh please](http://fotoarchiv.geology.cz/show/photo/14570/g800.jpg) Is that… a giant bread baked to look like one? I can’t tell if it’s real ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/44 "2017-08-02T03:45:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I use both terms interchangeably. Spoken, it’s probably “lightning bug” more often, but when written, “firefly” gets a boost from being shorter and a little easier to spell. “Lightning Bug” would make a lousy name for a SF series and “firefly” would ruin my favorite Mark Twain quote. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/45 "2017-08-02T04:15:02Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > That’s not a centipede. [This](http://www.blog.lucafadda.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/sgigantea5pi6.jpg) is a centipede. > [@Trancephalic](#): > > [Oh please](http://fotoarchiv.geology.cz/show/photo/14570/g800.jpg) [I’ll stick with these, tyvm…](http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/screens/centipede_unknown_atari.gif) ---
**Author:** ![ZurBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/71e660/32.png) [@ZurBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZurBob)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/46 "2017-08-02T04:15:27Z")
> [@Oddball\_92](#): > > I think it’s what we, in the south, call a silverfish… maybe not after looking at some pics Around here, the uninitiated call the OP’s creature a silverfish also… But they are wrong, the OP’s centipede and the silverfish are two different beasts. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/47 "2017-08-02T04:21:16Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > That’s not a centipede. That’s [The Tingle](http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Tingler-2.jpg)r. That was such a delightfully silly movie. I wonder if J.K. Rowling was subconsciously thinking of the _denouement_ scene in this when she came up with boggart elimination techniques… ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/48 "2017-08-02T04:24:17Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Is that… a giant bread baked to look like one? I can’t tell if it’s real It’s an arthropleura, which went extinct about 300 million years ago. So it’s not real, but not exactly fake either. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/49 "2017-08-02T07:15:20Z")
And [this is a Flexipede](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVQHYeUHBXM)! Classic early computer animation video from 1967. Shows how the Flexipede got its legs. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/50 "2017-08-02T11:04:17Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > The one time I saw a centipede on the wall (about eye-level) it was a translucent grey trireme. And damn fast. That is such a beautifully poetic, yet completely accurate, description. Kudos! > [@Trancephalic](#): > > [Oh please](http://fotoarchiv.geology.cz/show/photo/14570/g800.jpg) Mine’s not extinct… > [@pohjonen](#): > > That’s not a centipede. That’s [The Tingle](http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Tingler-2.jpg)r. Now I must watch this movie… > [@Reply](#): > > Is that… a giant bread baked to look like one? I can’t tell if it’s real Oh, they were real enough. But thankfully we don’t have the same atmosphere to sustain their like, anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/51 "2017-08-02T13:18:52Z")
A couple of years ago I had a millipede boom–whenever it rained (and it was a very rainy summer) and I went outside at night I’d see dozens if not hundreds of them crawling around on the outside walls of my house. It all led to the day I found [a writhing clump](http://imgur.com/a/Pj2G2) of them on my front porch. I scooped them up and moved them away from the house. I haven’t seen a significant number of them sense then, so it must have been most of the population gathered in that clump. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/52 "2017-08-02T15:29:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > We have oddles of these cute little millipede things here. They’re about the color and shape of earthworms, sorta brick red. The babies are tiny (of course) and the really big ones are about 2" long. Most are more like 1 to 1-1/2". Big enough to see easily, but not big enough to be scary even for kids. In all they’re pretty benign little brown tubes. > > But they each have about 1 zillion little hairlike legs that make the most fascinating wave motion as they walk. The critter progresses forwards and density waves of legs also progress forwards. > > It’s the same weird effect as a Michael Jackson Moonwalk where his legs appear to be walking forwards while his whole body is moving backwards. But inversed. The overall effect of the legs looks like they should be propelling the critter backwards but instead it’s going forwards. Since you can’t tell one end from the other to begin with, it’s odd looking to say the least. > > It seems the lizards love these things. Might be an example of a pauropoda. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/53 "2017-08-02T16:35:39Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > What’s wrong with lightning bug? Growing up in Chicago, that was the normal name for them. [Here’s an isogloss](http://mentalfloss.com/article/66185/regional-breakdown-firefly-vs-lightning-bug) of the firefly/lightning bug breakdown. “Firefly” is the exclusive name west of the Rockies, “lightning bug” is exclusive in the Midwest, and other areas use both interchangably. Though I’m a northwest native, the only time I’ve experienced those insects has been when visiting my mom’s family in Ohio (the Columbus area). So I’m used to calling them lightning bugs because that’s what they called them. Plus I’m worried if I call them fireflies that Fox will cancel them and I won’t be able to enjoy them anymore. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566/54 "2017-08-02T16:59:51Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Though I’m a northwest native, the only time I’ve experienced those insects has been when visiting my mom’s family in Ohio (the Columbus area). So I’m used to calling them lightning bugs because that’s what they called them. You know, it was only a week or two ago–while browsing one of the old SD “stuff you are surprised people don’t know” threads–that I learned that firebugs/lightning flies aren’t found in the western US. I know from experience that they are found in the east, I know from Japanese media that they are in Japan, I sort of just assumed that they were found everywhere in between (at least, in the areas not too hot or too dry.) Tons of them around here this time of year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insect-identification-or-how-i-may-never-sleep-again/792566.md?page=2)