Centipedes are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda, an arthropod group which also includes millipedes and other multi-legged creatures. Centipedes are elongated segmented (metameric) creatures with one pair of legs per body segment. All centipedes are venomous and can inflict painful bites, injecting their venom through pincer-like appendages known as forcipules. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs, ranging from 30 to 382. Centipedes always have an odd number of pairs of legs; no centipede has exactly 100 legs. Like spiders and scorpions, centipedes are predominantly carnivorous.
Scutigera coleoptrata, also known as the house centipede, is a species of centipede that is typically yellowish-grey and has up to 15 pairs of long legs. Originating in the Mediterranean region, it has spread to other parts of the world, where it can live in human homes. It is an insectivore; it kills and eats other arthropods, such as insects and arachnids.
The mouthparts of arthropods have evolved into a number of forms, each adapted to a different style or mode of feeding. Most mouthparts represent modified, paired appendages, which in ancestral forms would have appeared more like legs than mouthparts. In general, arthropods have mouthparts for cutting, chewing, piercing, sucking, shredding, siphoning, and filtering. This article outlines the basic elements of four arthropod groups: insects, myriapods, crustaceans and chelicerates. Insects are used as the model, with the novel mouthparts of the other groups introduced in turn. Insects are not, however, the ancestral form of the other arthropods discussed here.
Fuxianhuia is a genus of Lower Cambrian fossil arthropod known from the Chengjiang fauna in China. Its purportedly primitive features have led to its playing a pivotal role in discussions about the euarthropod stem group. Nevertheless, despite being known from many specimens, disputes about its morphology, in particular its head appendages, have made it one of the most controversial of the Chengjiang taxa, and it has been discussed extensively in the context of the arthropod head problem.
Occacaris oviformis is an extinct nektonic predatory arthropod from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan shale Lagerstätte. It bears a superficial resemblance to the Cambrian arthropod, Canadaspis, though, was much smaller, and had a pair of "great appendages", with which it may have grasped prey. It was originally considered to belong to Megacheira, however it is questioned in later study.
Kiisortoqia soperi is an extinct species of arthropod from the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet Lagerstätte in Greenland. While it had a superficially trilobite-like bodyform, it also possessed large frontal appendages similar to those of radiodonts.
Scolopendra morsitans, also known as the Tanzanian blue ringleg or red-headed centipede, is a species of centipede in the family Scolopendridae. S. morsitans is the type species for the genus Scolopendra.
Geophilus flavus is a terrestrial, soil-dwelling, species of centipede in the Geophilidae family. G. flavus occurs in a range of habitats across central Europe, North America, Australia and other tropical regions. Geophilomorph centipedes, like centipedes generally, are primary predators, hunting predominantly in underground soil burrows or above ground leaf litter. Their consumption behaviours are influenced by environment and seasonal factors. Given their lack of economic value and marginal medical significance, G.flavus remains largely understudied in mainstream research. Some recent studies have detailed the evolutionary development of G.flavus and Geophilidae generally, illustrating developed predator features like forcipule venom glands.
Wingertshellicus is an extinct genus of arthropod that has been found in Hunsrück Slate, that is located in the Rhenish Massif in Germany, and lived about 405 million years ago, during the Lower Emsian.
The Geophilidae are a polyphyletic, cosmopolitan family of soil centipedes in the superfamily Geophiloidea containing the mostly defunct clades Aphilodontidae, Dignathodontidae, Linotaeniidae, Chilenophilinae, and Macronicophilidae. Species in this family are characterized by mandibles with a single pectinate lamella, slender antennae, sternal pores with variable arrangement, a generally slightly or moderately elongate head, frequently undivided coxosternite with two paramedian sclerotized lines, claws without rows of filament, and female gonopods usually being an undivided lamina.
The Cryptopidae are a family of scolopendromorph centipedes. Cryptopids are blind and possess 21 pairs of legs. The genus Cryptops is the numerically largest in the family, comprising over 150 species worldwide.
Mecistocephalidae are a monophyletic family of centipedes in the order Geophilomorpha. It is the only family in the suborder Placodesmata. This family differs from all other geophilomorphs insofar as the number of segments in mecistocephalids is generally fixed within each species and the same for each sex. Most mecistocephalid species have 49 pairs of legs, but the family includes centipedes with odd numbers of leg pairs ranging from as few as 41 to as many as 101. Variation in the number of leg-bearing segments within each sex and within species has been recorded among the mecistocephalid species with the greatest number of legs: Mecistocephalus diversisternus, which has 57 or 59 leg pairs, M. japonicus, which has 63 or 65 leg pairs, and M. microporus, which has odd numbers of leg pairs ranging from 93 to 101.
Geophilus persephones is a species of soil centipede in the family Geophilidae discovered in 1999. This species is named after Persephone, the queen of the underworld in Greek mythology, and found in caves in the Gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Martin. It has elongated antennae and legs as well as abundant sensory setae, and like other geophilomorhps it lacks sight, has a flattened trunk, and is well adapted to underground life. This species was the first troglomorphic geophilomorph ever discovered and one of the only two in existence along with Geophilus hadesi. Known from a single male specimen, this species has only 29 pairs of legs, one of only two species in the Geophilidae family to have so few leg pairs.
Acanthogeophilus is a genus of soil centipedes in the family Geophilidae, found in the centro-west part of the Mediterranean region. The species in this genus are slender, 2-3 centimeters long, with between 67-71 pairs of stout legs, peculiar spine-like processes on the ultimate legs, a claw-like pretarsus, complete coxo-pleural sutures, incomplete chitin-lines, absence of a carpophagous pit, possession of only basal denticles, and a transverse band porefield with scattered, anterior pores on the coxopleuron.
Geophilus proximus is a species of soil centipede in the family Geophilidae found in the northern part of the Palearctic and widespread across the entire Baltic basin, though it reaches as far as the Arctic Circle and has been introduced through human agency to northern, central, and eastern parts of Kazakhstan. It was recorded once with certainty in Britain from Unst in the Shetland Islands; distribution in the rest of Europe is difficult to assess because of frequent misidentifications of the species. Populations from northern Europe are mostly parthenogenetic.
Geophilus impressus is a species of soil centipede in the family Geophilidae found all over Europe, and has also been recorded in North Africa. It lives frequently in endogean habitats; in Sardinia it's found mostly in Quercus ilex woods, but also in Mediterranean shrub, open habitats, and maquis. It lives anywhere from sea level to 1700 meters above it, sometimes in caves.
Diphyonyx conjungens, formerly Geophilus conjungens, is a species of soil centipede in the family Geophilidae that has been recorded in the Balkan Peninsula, Anatolia, the southern Sporades islands, the most eastern parts of Turkish Armenia, the Pontic and Tauric mountains, and Crimea. It grows up to 60 millimeters long and bears 69–81 leg pairs, as well as 1–2 stout tubercles and 2–4 slender filaments on the mid-part of the labrum, an absence of condyles between the anterior trunk sterna, and a single, isolated pore on each coxo-pleuron.
Scolopendra dehaani, common name Giant Vietnamese centipede, is a large Scolopendrid centipede found across Mainland Southeast Asia. It is also found in India, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Scolopendra japonica, formerly classified as Scolopendra subspinipes japonica, is a species of scolopendrid centipede mostly found in Japan, although specimens have been reported in other parts of Eastern Asia such as China, Taiwan, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. They usually grow between 7.5 and 13 centimetres in length. It is known by the common names Japanese giant centipede and blue-head centipede
Arthrorhabdus, from the Greek ἄρθρον, a joint, and ῥάβδος, a staff, is a species of Scolopendrid centipede in the subfamily Scolopendrinae. Species are found in Mexico and the Southern United States, Australia (A. paucispinus & A. mjöbergi), and South Africa (A. formosus). Since a reapprasial in the genus in 2010, the genus only has four species. It may be polyphyletic.
