#thereuonema

[crevicedwelling]

what creature is The Most Bug

easy. these

[fungi-maestro]

Found a moving feather today 🪶 🦗

[geosesarma]

A big game hunter with their prize, Thereuonema tuberculata and a plump Forficula earwig

[pelagodes]

Thereuonema time. she was really chill, found em in an abandoned lot under some discarded metal sheeting.

I see this species get confused with the smaller, lighter house centipede they share the same range with quite often. The smaller of the two being Scutigera coleoptrata.

[crevicedwelling]

Thereuonema tuberculata, not Scutigera coleoptrata! the Asian version of the more widespread house centipede that was only detected in the US recently but likely has been here as long as its more indoors relative of Mediterranean origin has. field marks: general darker color, shorter appendages, more likely to find outdoors than indoors in my experience.

hi! I'm looking for an ID for this fellow at work the other day (eastern nebraska)

he was about an inch long and really fast. tbh he freaked me out a little bit but he was chill when I took him outside

House centipede! They are chill friends despite all the leggies...or maybe because of them. Love is stored in the leg...

[crevicedwelling]

eye level with a crevice angel, Thereuonema tuberculata.

a sweet pet of mine, graciously sitting still for the camera. I think he has a nice smile

[crevicedwelling]

'Pede party happening in my tub

triple Thereuonema blessing

to my eyes looks like two males on the right and a female on the left, wonder what they’re talking about

[crevicedwelling]

one of the big male Thereuonema tuberculata molted! the deep blue color will harden to brown in a few days or so.

he regrew 2 legs he lost in the wild. they’re paler than the rest, and a little smaller, but they’ll look the same after the next molt.

[crevicedwelling]

Thereuonema tuberculata N°6 molted. he’s a big old boy, probably a food four years old or so. ugly cute face with fuzz, huge buggy eyes

I think I’ll call him Mouche. say hello to Mouche

[crevicedwelling]

You can have house centipedes as pets :0 how does one do this. I mean i probably wont bc im pretty bad at bug care aside from like. Mealworms. And my millipede but tbh hes less a pet and more a "idk where he came from or what he even iss bc he was in a plant i had got so i cant release him but hes been doing great in the terrarium i made for him with detritus from outside so."

here is my caresheet for them. they are not difficult to care for provided you have an appropriate enclosure, but can be picky eaters and favor tiny prey.

[crevicedwelling]

do you know anything about successful keeping of house centipedes? im kind of obsessed with them but ah. most of the resources online say they've seen people successfully keep and breed them... but when i inquire they direct me to you once again. sorry if this is a question you get asked a lot!!

consult my caresheet on my stupid little blogspot that never went further than two posts! I still have not paired them in captivity yet, but I have raised eggs laid in captivity to adulthood.

it is somewhat outdated already since I’ve learned they are willing to, if somewhat unenthusiastically, eat cut up cockroaches but most of this is still relevant

[crevicedwelling]

went on a rock hunt the other day (mke, wi) and stumbled upon four of these handsome creatures, two of which posed politely. no ID needed, just wanted to share this pleasant meeting with another person who would appreciate them!

I always love to see Thereuonema tuberculata photos! and another datapoint adding to the trend that this species is more commonly encountered outdoors, unlike the indoor Scutigera coleoptrata.

also Mouche says hi to his kin

[crevicedwelling]

for me personally, the most useful thing for overcoming my bug-leg-phobia has been seeing them super close up. from a human perspective, all those legs look impossibly thin to me and it freaks my brain out. seeing them up close helps me to realize that they have 'normal' proportions, they're just too small for me to fully process.

so, if you had any super-close-up photos of a house centipede's legs.... that would be the most helpful thing for me

sure thing! N°6, a big male Thereuonema tuberculata is here to help:

his walking legs are highly segmented and very thin, although they still end in a tiny single claw like other centipedes’ legs (versus the double claw of insects + arachnids). each walking leg is prehensile and several are used together to capture prey, wrapping around arthropod limbs like a lasso.

here’s N°6 politely accepting a cricket drumstick he dropped after this video:

and a video of a Scutigera coleoptrata refusing to shake hands with my forceps:

their terminal legs (also called ultimate legs) aren’t used for walking, and while flexible aren’t prehensile. their purpose is to function as a rear set of feelers, and also autotomize (self-amputate) very readily to escape from a predator’s grasp. the walking legs also autotomize very easily

fortunately they can grow all of those back, and startlingly well! N°8 here was missing five rear legs when I caught him, and after just one molt they regrew. you can see they’re white at first, and a little smaller than they should be, but fully functional. another molt would make them good as new.

I once rescued a Thereuonema from an abandoned spiderweb that claimed 14 legs on one side. it actually did run in circles but it ate well, and was back to a full 30 in one molt.

[crevicedwelling]

Finally made my ugly little blog and put up the house centipede caresheet! It's missing a few pictures but is readable and will keep your creature alive.

[crevicedwelling]

I’ve found your blog quite useful as someone who is a big fan of all bugs save centipedes (nor larvae but not applicable here) and is trying to be less of a baby about them. I’m the only one in my class who will pick up the stink bugs and put them outside, but that leaves no one to move the house centipedes that are found everywhere in every Japanese high school. Usually I find looking up close at bugs helps a lot because they have very cute faces, but I’m having trouble with centipedes specifically since many of them seem to have so many sharp bits. I also wish they were slower too, they scuttle too fast and it scares me a bit. I can’t hold these against them though, they have an evolutionary niche and they’re filling it well. I hope there is a place in my heart for all bugs. Please keep making content of all your pets, seeing their names and them eating is helping loads! I like that they have old people names :)

thank you for working on your fear & I hope you can get more comfortable around them, but even if not I know you have the right intentions.

I wish I could have access to Japanese house centipedes… I’m guessing they’re Thereuonema like some of mine but do any huge hand-sized Thereuopoda sneak in? if so you are living my dream and if I were there I would relieve you of every one

[crevicedwelling]

Beast from the bathtub

ooh! something about this one is giving off Thereuonema vibes rather than the more common Scutigera. got a view of its back?