2017 January 8

  

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  There being no butterflies to look at at*** this time of year, I’m reduced to looking at firebrats and trying to distinguish between the two species that are in our apartment building, the Common Firebrat Thermobia domestica and the Grey Firebrat Ctenolepisma longicaudata.   I photographed three more this morning, two of which I believe to be T. domestica and one which I believe to be C. longicaudata.

 

*** [My computer doesn’t like the two consecutive ats in my opening sentence.  Nor does it like the plural ats.  I’m going to keep them.]

 

   I believe the following to be good identification criteria, though I shall be looking out to see if there are any additional reliable characters (and viewers are also encouraged to do so).

 

Thermobia domestica

 

Strongly patterned with irregular alternating broad brown and pale transverse bands.

Abdomen shorter than head-plus-thorax.

Third pair of legs nearer to tail than to head.

 

 

 Thermobia domestica (Thy.: Lepismatidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

Ctenolepisma longicauda

 

Uniform grey to unaided eye, but on photograph or under a lens seen to be very finely mottled and speckled.

Abdomen longer than head-plus-thorax

Third pair of legs nearer to head than to tail

 

 Ctenolepisma longicaudata (Thy.: Lepismatidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

 

   Viewers’ attention is drawn to today’s email from the Victoria Natural History Society concerning a photograph contest.  I encourage invertebrate enthusiasts to have a go.  [Deadline January 16.]   I don’t think submitting an entry to the competition precludes you from also posting it in on Invert Alert, nor does having had a photo posted on Invert Alert preclude you from submitting an entry to the contest.  There have been many superb photos on Invert Alert, many of which would surely be good for the competition.

 

    I don’t think my photos of firebrats would stand much of a chance.  Hardly an aesthetically attractive hexapod! 

 

    You may have to be a better computer expert than I am, because your entry has to be via Flickr, Twitter or Facebook, which are all beyond my ken.  [Please don’t write to me telling me how easy they all are!]