I will say (continuing my thoughts from last time) that there is one variety of arthropod that I haven't seen in my new abode, and that my parents had to regularly deal with - the many-legged grey basement-dwelling centipedes.

Now, I don't like centipedes on principle. (Millipedes are okay. Millipedes eat rotting leaves and plant matter and are harmless to people.) But centipedes - they can sting, and some of them are actually poisonous.

And there's also the rounded hump-shaped body (millipedes) vs. the flat body (centipedes). Somehow, the hump-shaped body seems kind of silly and benign (to me at least), whereas the sheer flatness of centipedes spells evil.

this is the species of house centipede I'm talking about. But I remember the ones that would come blundering up from the basement as being a lot bigger, and having more legs, and being really really fast - like "Quick, get that thing before the cat tries to catch it!" fast. And they had the freaky knee-above-the-body bend to their legs.

I've never had one in my house here, probably because of a lack of a basement, which seems to be where those things hide out. (Another picture is here, but don't click on it if you're bug-squeamish - it's a really close up shot).

And here are some millipedes. Note that they are way cuter and have much less of a creep factor. They also can't sting. (Although, apparently some can squirt irritating compounds out of body pores as an anti-predator defense).

In conclusion: millipedes good. Centipedes bad.