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Photo#145643
Bristletail?

Bristletail?
Carderock, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA
September 13, 2007
Size: Maybe .5"
Since this critter was long and thin I figured I'd just composite it with itself, different angles, and add some close-up portraits. I've never seen a bristletail before, but when I saw it I thought it looked different enough from a silverfish that it might be something else - backed out from the bristletail section here and, sure enough, it looks a whole lot like the bristletail images. I spotted it clinging to the outside wall of a bathroom in a park. There were others on the walls inside.

Moved
Moved from Bristletails.

Meinertellidae
The lack of scales on the antennae places this in the Meinertellidae. The pigmentation on the maxillary palpi seems to fit Machiloides banksi Silvestri 1911, which is known from Maryland, but I cannot be sure.

 
Thanks
for narrowing it down! This was found in the bathhouse of a very rocky natural area, if that means anything.

 
habitat
This is consistent with the habitat of Machiloides banksi, which lives in rocky places in Arkansas (Allen, 1995).

Reference
Allen, R.T. 1995. Pedetontus gershneri, a new species of Machilidae from the interior highlands of North America (Insecta: Microcoryphia). Entomological News 106:195-198. http://biostor.org/reference/3505.

Great photo!
Great photo!
I've only had one opportunity to photograph them (& it was only a single individual). These animals are just so strange & old. :)

 
Thanks!
They MUST be old - they look so strange! Fascinating, though - I'll be keeping an eye out for more when I go back to that place.

 
Oldest of the old
Archaeognathans have a spotty fossil record (rather few examples) dating back to the Devonian, 400 mya.
There are only about 500 species world wide.
The book "Evolution of the Insects" (by David Grimaldi & Michael S. Engel) is where I'm getting this from if anyone's curious. When I find a good source I have a nasty tendency to worship it. ^U^

 
Good sources
are good things! Thanks for the interesting info.

 
I like to joke that I eat boo
I like to joke that I eat books.
Odd thing is, I find it very grueling to read them from cover to cover. :/
I have a short attention span & don't like staying put for too long.

Yes,
it is.

 
Thanks
for the confirmation!

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