Centipedes are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda, an arthropod group which includes millipedes and other multi-legged animals. Centipedes are elongated segmented (metameric) creatures with one pair of legs per body segment. All centipedes are venomous and can inflict painful stings, injecting their venom through pincer-like appendages known as forcipules or toxicognaths, which are actually modified legs instead of fangs. Despite the name, no centipede has exactly 100 pairs of legs; the number of pairs of legs is an odd number that ranges from 15 pairs to 191 pairs.
The Sakishima Islands are an archipelago located at the southernmost end of the Japanese Archipelago. They are part of the Ryukyu Islands and include the Miyako Islands and the Yaeyama Islands. The islands are administered as part of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
The Kerama Islands are a subtropical island group 32 kilometres (20 mi) southwest of Okinawa Island in Japan.
The Japanese archipelago is an archipelago of 14,125 islands that form the country of Japan. It extends over 3,000 km (1,900 mi) from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East China and Philippine seas in the southwest along the Pacific coast of the Eurasian continent, and consists of three island arcs from north to south: the Northeastern Japan Arc, the Southwestern Japan Arc, and the Ryukyu Island Arc. The Daitō Islands, the Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc, the Kuril Islands, and the Nanpō Islands neighbor the archipelago.
Scolopendra heros, commonly known as the Arizona desert centipede, giant desert centipede, giant Sonoran centipede, Texas black-tailed centipede, Texas redheaded centipede, and giant redheaded centipede, is a species of North American centipede found in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.
The Yaeyama Islands are an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and cover 591.46 square kilometres (228.36 sq mi). The islands are located southwest of the Miyako Islands, part of the Ryukyu Islands archipelago. The Yaeyama Islands are the remotest part of Japan from the main islands and contain Japan's most southern (Hateruma) and most western (Yonaguni) inhabited islands. The city of Ishigaki serves as the political, cultural, and economic center of the Yaeyama Islands. On maps dating to the 1700s, the Yaeyama Group of Islands appears as the "Majico Sima Group", "Nambu-soto Islands", "Nambu Soto", and the "Taipin Islands".
The Ryukyu Islands, also known as the Nansei Islands or the Ryukyu Arc, are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands, with Yonaguni the westernmost. The larger are mostly volcanic islands and the smaller mostly coral. The largest is Okinawa Island.
Scolopendridae is a family of large centipedes.
Scolopendra is a species-rich genus of large tropical centipedes of the family Scolopendridae.
Ijima's leaf warbler is a species of Old World warbler in the family Phylloscopidae. The species is native to Japan, where it has been designated a Natural Monument under the 1950 Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, with records also from Taiwan and the Philippines.
The Ryukyu flying fox or Ryukyu fruit bat is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae. It is found in Japan, Taiwan, and the Batanes and Babuyan Islands of the Philippines. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical swamps. It is threatened by habitat loss and by hunting for food and the IUCN classify it as "Vulnerable".
The Scolopendromorpha, also known as tropical centipedes and bark centipedes, are an order of centipedes whose members are epimorphic and usually possess 21 or 23 trunk segments with the same number of paired legs. The number of leg pairs is fixed at 21 for most species in this order and fixed at 23 for the remaining species, except for two species with intraspecific variation: Scolopendropsis bahiensis, which has 21 or 23 leg pairs, and S. duplicata, which has 39 or 43 leg pairs. Species in this order have antennae with 17 or more segments. The order comprises the five families Cryptopidae, Scolopendridae, Mimopidae, Scolopocryptopidae, and Plutoniumidae. Nearly all species in the family Scolopendridae have four ocelli on each side of the head, and the genus Mimops features a pale area often considered an ocellus on each side of the head, whereas the other three families are blind. Species in the family Scolopocryptopidae have 23 leg-bearing segments, whereas species in all other families in this order have only 21 leg-bearing segments. The only 3 known amphibious centipedes, Scolopendra cataracta, Scolopendra paradoxa and Scolopendra alcyona belong to this order.
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.
Scolopendra cataracta is a species of centipede in the family Scolopendridae. It is the first known amphibious centipede, growing to up to 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in length.
In the context of the conservation of endangered species in Japan, and the list below, Endangered Species are those designated by Cabinet order in accordance with the 1992 Act on Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. There are two main types of Endangered Species, National Endangered Species (国内希少野生動植物種) (NES) and International Endangered Species (国際希少野生動植物種) (IES), although there is also provision for Temporarily Designated Endangered Species (緊急指定種), as well as Designated Nationally Endangered Species (特定国内希少野生動植物種)—and businesses dealing with Designated Nationally Endangered Species (特定国内種事業) and Designated Internationally Endangered Species (特定国際種事業).
Solanum miyakojimense is a species of flowering plant in the family Solanaceae that is native to the Miyako Islands of Japan and found also on Taiwan.
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.
Eucorydia donanensis is a species of iridescent cockroach in the family Corydiidae. It was discovered on Yonaguni Island of Japan's Ryukyu Archipelago, and was believed to be restricted to that island until its discovery on nearby Ishigakijima Island in June 2022.
Eucorydia miyakoensis is a species of cockroach first discovered on Miyako Island, in Japan's Ryukyu Archipelago, in 2021. It is found exclusively in the forests of Miyako Island, where it lives in the forest floor's leaf litter and humus.
