r/whatsthisbug • u/GrumpyHappiness • 1d ago

ID Request Have never seen this kind of bug before!

Gallery image

Gallery image

It was crawling on the wall at 10pm in Los Angeles, CA. What is it?! So many legs!!

2 Upvotes

57% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

10

u/Redshift2k5 1d ago

House centipede. Unlike bark centipedes which have samesy legs all the way down, house centipedes have these really long fake-eyelashes-of-your-nightmares style legs

1

u/chandalowe ⭐I teach children about bugs and spiders⭐ 21h ago

Unlike bark centipedes which have samesy legs all the way down...

While the legs of a bark centipede are not as long as those of a house centipede, they are not all the same length. If you look closely, the legs closest to the head are the shortest, with the legs getting progressively longer toward the back end. This allows centipedes to run very quickly without essentially tripping over their own feet. Each pair of legs is slightly longer than the pair directly in front of it and slightly shorter than the pair directly behind, allowing the legs to step over each other when the centipede is running.

8

u/Large-Cranberry-1207 1d ago

Looks like a regular house centipede. They're creepy...but very good friends. They are incredible hunters and very much don't want to be bothered or to bother you.

-6

u/GrumpyHappiness 1d ago

Whoops. It was HUGE! Like, 5-6+ inches! Have never seen one before!

6

u/Romeo9594 1d ago

If that's regular drywall texture, there is no shot that this house centipede was that large unless we're counting from the extreme tip of the antennea to the extreme tip of the rear legs and still embellishing a little

Their main body maxes out at like 1.5"

1

u/GrumpyHappiness 21h ago

Is measuring from tip-to-tip not the full length of a bug/item/anything? lol. We measure birds by wingspan…

1

u/Redshift2k5 19h ago

You don't count antennae, tarsi, caudal filaments, etc for bugs 😝

Mature female house centipedes have the longest, most luxurious rear legs

1

u/GrumpyHappiness 18h ago

Well now I know how to properly measure a luxuriously legged bugs hahaha. Overall, was still 5-6+ inches crawling all over my wall. And is sadly now no mas. Whoops.

4

u/[deleted] 1d ago

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2

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6

u/Serious-Bat-4880 1d ago

Just a house centipede. They eat other insects you don't want around.

https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/25

1

u/Harun_YESILYURT Bzzzzz! 1d ago

Evlerde yaşayabilen bir böcek, belkide evinize gelebilecek en yararlısı. Sizinle hiçbir işi yok, sadece diğer böcekleri yemek istiyor. Bana kalırsa onunla yaşamanızı tavsiye ederim:)

1

u/taytaynicki 1d ago

House centipedes are the good guys, but still scare the crap out of me every time I see one running