Information about Centipedes

Centipedes
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Myriapoda Class: Chilopoda Latreille, 1817
Orders and Families
See text

Centipedes (Class Chilopoda') are fast-moving, venomous, predatory, terrestrial arthropods that have long bodies and many jointed legs. Chiefly nocturnal, centipedes are found primarily in tropical climates but are also widely distributed in temperate zones.

Some species are highly venomous and often produce very painful bites but only one human death has ever been recorded - from a bite on the head of a young child by a large centipede on a Pacific island^[1] - though severe reactions have also occasionally been recorded in adults.

Anatomy

Like the millipedes, centipedes are highly segmented (15 to 173 segments), but with only one pair of walking legs per segment. Centipedes are dorso-ventrally flattened, and are among the fastest and most agile of non-flying arthropod predators.

The head of a centipede has a pair of antennae, jaw-like mandibles, and other mouthparts. The most anterior trunk segment of a centipede has a pair of venomous claws (called maxillipedes) that are used for both defense and for capturing and paralyzing prey. Despite their name, which stems from the Latin words centum (meaning 'hundred') and pes, pedis (meaning 'foot'), they normally have around half that number of legs, though it is possible to find centipedes with over 200 legs.

The house centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) is a fast-moving carnivore that feeds on insects such as cockroaches, house flies, and other small house pests, and is thus harmless to humans, but its alarming appearance and painful bite often results in its extermination from residences. The bite of a smaller centipede in temperate areas may be similar to a bee sting, but the bite of a larger tropical species is excruciatingly painful, leaving two black puncture wounds about a centimeter apart.

Size

Scolopendra gigantea, also known as the Amazonian giant centipede, is the largest extant species of centipede in the world, reaching over 30 cm (12 inches) in length. It is known to eat bats, catching them in midflight, as well as rodents and spiders. The prehistoric Euphoberia was the largest known centipede, growing up to one meter (39 inches) in length.

There are rumors that state that the Galápagos Islands giant centipede (Scolopendra galapagoensis) can reach sizes of up to 25 inches (over 60 cm), although these rumours may result from the rarity of the particular centipede. Captive Galapagos centipedes don't often exceed 20 cm (8 inches) in body length.[1]

The garden centipede, the most common centipede in North America, is a much smaller variety, rarely exceeding a few inches in length.

Breeding

Males spin a small web onto which they deposit a spermatophore for the female to take up. Sometimes there is a courtship dance, and sometimes the males just leave them for the females to find. In temperate areas egg laying occurs in spring and summer but in subtropical and tropical areas there appears to be little seasonality to centipede breeding.

The Lithobiomorpha, and Scutigeromorpha lay their eggs singly in holes in the soil, the female fills the hole in on the egg and leaves it. The young usually hatch with only 7 pairs of legs and gain the rest in successive moults. Scutigera coleoptera, the American house centipede, hatches with only 4 pairs of legs and in successive moults has 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 15, 15 and 15 before becoming a sexually mature adult. It takes about 3 years for S. coleoptera to achieve adulthood, however, like millipedes, centipedes are relatively long-lived when compared to their insect cousins, for example: the European Lithobius forficatus can live for 5 or 6 years.

Females of Geophilomorphapha and Scolopendromorpha show far more parental care, the eggs 15 to 60 in number are laid in a nest in the soil or in rotten wood, the female stays with the eggs, guarding and licking them to protect them from fungi. The female in some species stays with the young after they have hatched, guarding them until they are ready to leave. If disturbed the females tend to either abandon the eggs or young or to eat them; abandoned eggs tend to fall prey to fungi rapidly, thus breeding is difficult to study in these species.

Orders and families

Devonobiomorpha ? Geophilomorpha Aphilodontidae Azygethidae Ballophilidae Dignathodontidae Eriphantidae Geophilidae Gonibregmatidae Himantariidae Linotaeniidae Macronicophilidae Mecistocephalidae Neogeophilidae Oryidaev Schendylidae Sogonidae Soniphilidae

Lithobiomorpha Anopsobiidae Cermatobiidae Henicopidae Lithobiidae Pseudolithobiidae Pterygotergidae Scolopendromorpha Cryptopidae Otostigmidae Plutoniumidae Scolopendridae Scolopocryptopidae Scutigeromorpha Scutigeridae

List of some common species

• Arizona desert centipede
• Black centipede
• Burrowing centipede
• Chinese red-headed centipede
• Common centipede
• Common desert centipede
• Egyptian centipede
• Feather tail centipede
• Galápagos centipede
• Giant centipede (Ethmostigmus rubripes)
• Giant desert centipede
• Giant North American centipede
• Giant Sonoran centipede
• House centipede
• Megarian banded centipede
• Peruvian giant orange leg centipede (Scolopendra gigantea)
• Red feather tail centipede
• Red-headed centipede
• Stone centipede
• Sonoran desert centipede
• Tanzanian blue ringed centipede
• Vietnamese centipede

Footnotes

References

• Campbell, Neil A. (1996): Biology: Fourth Edition, Benjamin/Cummings Publishing, New York ISBN 0-8053-1957-3 p. 614
• Cloudsley-Thompson, J.L. (1968): Spiders, Scorpions, Centipedes and Mites. Pergamon Press; Oxford
• Eason, E. H., (1964): Centipedes of the British Isles. Frederick Warne

Further reading

• Edgecombe, G.D., Giribet, G. & Wheeler, W.C. (2002): Phylogeny of Henicopidae (Chilopoda: Lithobiomorpha): a combined analysis of morphology and five molecular loci. Systematic Entomology 27: 31-64. PDF

External links

• Debunking of some centipede myths, by American Tarantula Society
• Centipedes of Australia - On-line guide, key and virtual centipede head
• Tree of Life Project – Chilopoda
• What do you call a centipede?
• Pictures of many centipede species plus information
• Photos of Australian centipede - Scolopendra morsitans
• Japanese Gejigeji
• http://www.scolopendra.be/classification.php