Common flycatcher - many-legged guest in the apartment

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

Seeing such a "forty-legged" surprise on his wall with a sharp turn on of the light, a person is driven by one animal instinct: to destroy! Nail it with a slipper immediately and throw it out the window - that's how unflattering the common flycatcher on the wall of the apartment is. But is it worth it to harm the harmless creatures of God, especially since this insect belongs to such - at least until now there have been no cases of death due to the fault of the flycatcher.

Features of the common flycatcher

This animal, or rather, an insect, has its own name in Latin: Scutigera coleoptrata. It is not for nothing that the common flycatcher got its nickname - it comes from the class of the labiopods of the flycatcher squad and feeds on insects. In its size, the flycatcher is not so big - up to 5 cm, therefore, on the scale of a three-room apartment, it seems like a harmless insect. Just imagine how the flycatcher sees us - and you want to hug her and cry!

Back to the biological description: the common flycatcher has 15 pairs of long and tenacious legs,allowing you to climb walls. The prey is tracked and lured by an insect with the help of long antennae. The body color is rather primitive - transparent brownish, with three black stripes along the back and on the legs. If you look at the muzzle, it is slightly narrowed, the eyes are slanted, from a certain angle it seems that the flycatcher is smiling.

Undoubtedly, the centipede flycatcher is a predator, but at the same time a nurse: its main diet is termites and cockroaches, small flies and cockroaches. Like its prey spiders, flycatchers inject venom into their prey and then eat it. Before slamming a flycatcher, it’s worth thinking a thousand times: are we ready for such a scrupulous destruction of pests?

By the way, for those who are afraid for furniture, food and pets, the common flycatcher does not regale itself with anything like that, especially people. A flycatcher sting, if at all possible, is equivalent to a mosquito sting or a weak bee sting.

The habitat of flycatchers is limited to the southern regions of Russia, Crimea and Kazakhstan. In nature, they hide under stones, waiting out the heat, and at night they are especially active and resort to bright light in the walls of boarding houses and houses. Flycatchers, like any creatures, also freeze - with the onset of cool autumn nights, they run to apartments in search of shelter.

It is interesting that young flycatchers have only 4 pairs of legs, with each new molt increasing one more. These centipedes live under ideal conditions for up to 7 years.

Flytraps are just insects?

BIn nature, this name is very common. There is a carnivorous (carnivorous) plant called "Venus flytrap", which lures insects onto its bright scarlet flowers and closes its "mouth" as soon as they land on them.

Also in the world of birds, the gray flycatcher is a small and cute representative - this bird has a piercing voice and often resembles a sparrow. Gray flycatchers are common in moist and light forests in warm parts of Europe and in southern Siberia. Its nests are often placed on stumps or dried snags, which makes the chicks vulnerable, and the flycatcher itself is rare and exotic.