The Machilidae are a family of insects belonging to the order Archaeognatha. There are around 250 described species worldwide. These insects are wingless, elongated and more or less cylindrical with a distinctive humped thorax and covered with tiny, close-fitting scales. The colour is usually grey or brown, sometimes intricately patterned. There are three "tails" at the rear of the abdomen: two cerci and a long central epiproct. They have large compound eyes, often meeting at a central point. They resemble the silverfish and the firebrat, which are from a different order, Zygentoma.
Lepismatidae is a family of primitive wingless insects with about 190 described species. This family contains the two most familiar members of the order Zygentoma: the silverfish and the firebrat. It is one of five families in the order Zygentoma.
Zygentoma are an order in the class Insecta, and consist of about 550 known species. The Zygentoma include the so-called silverfish or fishmoths, and the firebrats. A conspicuous feature of the order are the three long caudal filaments. The two lateral filaments are cerci, and the medial one is an epiproct or appendix dorsalis. In this they resemble the Archaeognatha, although the cerci of Zygentoma, unlike in the latter order, are nearly as long as the epiproct.
Ctenolepisma is a genus of primitive insects in the order Zygentoma, closely related to the silverfish and firebrat but less reliant on human habitation, some species being found both indoors and outdoors and some found exclusively outdoors. The genus is distributed nearly worldwide in warm regions. Australia lacks native Ctenolepisma, but is home to introduced species.
Ctenolepisma almeriense is a species of primitive insect of the order Zygentoma. Members of this species were once attributed to the widespread species Ctenolepisma lineatum but there are small but consistent differences which mark this as a separate species. It is found exclusively in south-eastern Spain, on Mediterranean slopes of the provinces of Alicante, Almería, Murcia and Valencia.
A silverfish is a wingless insect in the order Zygentoma. The same name can be applied to many species in the order as a whole, which comprises the families Lepismatidae, Nicoletiidae, Lepidotrichidae, Maindroniidae and Protrinemuridae.
Maindroniidae is a very small family of silverfish, basal insects belonging to the order Zygentoma. It contains just a single genus, Maindronia, and a handful of species.
Nicoletiidae is a family of primitive insects belonging to the order Zygentoma. These insects live primarily underground, under detritus, or in caves. A few species are recorded as commensals inside nests of social insects, such as the species Allotrichotriura saevissima which lives inside fire ant nests. Nicoletiidae don’t have eyes as other existing species and they lack pigment. They have medium size, with extended antennae and terminal filaments. Coletinia, a genus of this family, has many characters including a body length that ranges between 10 and 15mm. They may have yellowish pigmentation but most of them are transparent. They have bilayered and very large acrosome, a short nucleus including chromatin being really condensed with tubular invaginations and sperm length and head size classified as short.
Neoasterolepisma is a genus of primitive insects belonging to the family Lepismatidae. Many species live with ants.
Machilinus is a genus of rock bristletails in the family Meinertellidae. There are about 17 described species in Machilinus. The members of the genus are active during the day (diurnal).
Lepismachilis is a genus of jumping bristletails in the family Machilidae. There are more than 20 described species in Lepismachilis.
Praemachiloides is a genus of jumping bristletails in the family Machilidae. There are about five described species in Praemachiloides.
Trigoniophthalmus is a genus of jumping bristletails in the family Machilidae. There are about 11 described species in Trigoniophthalmus.
Tricholepidion is a genus of wingless insect belonging to Zygentoma, with only a single described species T. gertschi, native to the northern coast of California in Western North America. It lives under dead bark and in rotting wood of conifers in mesophytic forests. It is alternatively considered the only living member of the family Lepidotrichidae, which also includes Lepidotrix from Eocene aged European amber, or the only member of the family Tricholepidiidae. The taxonomic position of Tricholepidion is uncertain, in some molecular phylogenetics studies it has been recovered as less closely related to flying insects (Pterygota) than the rest of Zygentoma is, rendering Zygentoma paraphyletic. Each compound eye contains ~40 ommatidia, and they have three ocelli. Scales on the body are absent. Unlike Archaeognatha and the other families of Zygentoma, which have three- and sometimes two-segmented tarsi, they have five-segmented tarsi like many winged insects.
Thermobia aegyptiaca is a species of silverfish in the family Lepismatidae. The species was described by Hippolyte Lucas in 1840 based on specimens collected in Egypt. Thermobia aegyptiaca is distributed in Africa and the eastern Mediterranean Basin.
Neoasterolepisma gauthieri is a species of silverfish in the family Lepismatidae.
Ctenolepisma rothschildi is a species of silverfish in the family Lepismatidae. It is found in Africa, Australia, the Caribbean Sea, Europe and Northern Asia, Central America, North America, Oceania, South America, and Southern Asia.
Ctenolepisma vieirai is a species of silverfish in the family Lepismatidae. It is found in Europe.
Ctenolepisma longicaudatum, generally known as the gray silverfish, long-tailed silverfish or paper silverfish, is a species of Zygentoma in the family Lepismatidae. It was described by the German entomologist Karl Leopold Escherich in 1905 based on specimens collected in South Africa, but is found worldwide as synanthrope in human housings.
Sceletolepisma is a genus of primitive insects closely related to the silverfish and firebrat but less reliant on human habitation, some species being found both indoors and outdoors and some found exclusively outdoors. The genus is distributed nearly worldwide in warm regions.
