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; number of legs ranges from 15 pairs to 191 pairs, always an odd number.
Myriapods are the members of subphylum Myriapoda, containing arthropods such as millipedes and centipedes. The group contains about 13,000 species, all of them terrestrial.
Scutigera is a centipede genus in the scutigeromorph family Scutigeridae, a group of centipedes with long limbs and true compound eyes. It compose of more than 30 species, including the most common and well-studied Scutigera coleoptrata.
Scolopendridae is a family of large centipedes.
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 Scolopendropsis 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.
The Craterostigmomorpha are the least diverse centipede clade, comprising only two extant species, both in the genus Craterostigmus. Their geographic range is restricted to Tasmania and New Zealand. There is a single ocellus on each side of the head capsule. They have a distinct body plan; their anamorphosis comprises a single stage: in their first moult, they grow from having 12 trunk segments to having 15. Adult centipedes in this order, like those in Scutigeromorpha and Lithobiomorpha, have 15 leg-bearing segments. Their low diversity and intermediate position between the primitive anamorphic centipedes and the derived Epimorpha has led to them being likened to the platypus. They represent the survivors of a once diverse clade. Maternal brooding unites the Craterostigmomorpha with the Epimorpha into the clade Phylactometria which includes Craterostigmomorpha, Scolopendromorpha and Geophilomorpha. This trait is thought to be closely linked with the presence of sternal pores, which secrete sticky or noxious secretions, which mainly serve to repel predators and parasites. The presence of these pores on the Devonian Devonobius which is included in own order Devonobiomorpha permits its inclusion in this clade, allowing its divergence of Lithobiomorpha from Phylactometria to be dated to 375 million years ago.
Allothereua is a genus of scutigeromorph centipedes containing 9 species ranging from Central Asia to the Philippines to Australia, where at least six species are found. A 2009 study of scutigeromorph phylogeny found Allothereua to be polyphyletic; some species were more closely related to Parascutigera.
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.
Gonzalo Giribet is a Spanish-American invertebrate zoologist and Alexander Agassiz Professor of zoology working on systematics and biogeography at the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Harvard University. He is a past president of the International Society for Invertebrate Morphology, of the Willi Hennig Society, and vice-president of the Sociedad Española de Malacología.
Dendrothereua is a genus of house centipedes in the family Scutigeridae. There are at least three described species in Dendrothereua, found in the southern United States and the Neotropics.
Plutonium zwierleini, in the monotypic genus Plutonium, is one of the largest scolopendromorph centipedes in Europe, and one of the few potentially harmful to humans. Nevertheless, it has been rarely reported, only from the southern part of the Iberian and Italian peninsulas, Sardinia and Sicily.
Pselliodidae is a family of small centipedes, identical and closely related to house centipedes.
Scolopocryptops is a genus of bark centipedes in the family Scolopocryptopidae. There are over 20 described species in Scolopocryptops.
Strigamia is a genus of soil centipedes in the family Linotaeniidae found in temperate parts of the Holarctic region. Members of this family can be identified by their anteriorly tapering bodies, the extra claw on the forcipules, scattered coxal pores, and the distinctly swollen ultimate legs of the males. The generic name is from Latin striga, "strip," referring to its strip of bristles.
Ballophilidae is a monophyletic group of centipedes belonging to the order Geophilomorpha and superfamily Himantarioidea. Authorities now dismiss this group as a family, citing phylogenetic analysis, and instead refer to this clade as Ballophilinae, a possible subfamily within the family Schendylidae. Centipedes in this clade differ from others in the family Schendylidae by having bodies tapered toward the anterior tip, short heads, slender forcipules that are well apart, and an undivided lamina for the female gonopods. Centipedes in this clade are found in most tropical regions.
Plutoniumidae is a family of centipedes belonging to the order Scolopendromorpha. Centipedes in this family are blind and have 21 pairs of legs.
Scolopocryptops sexspinosus, the eastern red centipede, is a species of centipede in the family Scolopocryptopidae. It is found in North America. It is the only scolopendromorph definitively found in Canada. Canadian specimens appear to be most abundant in British Columbia and Vancouver Island. It is widespread across eastern North America from far southern Canada to the Carolinas and the Gulf Coast, and prefers hiding under rotting wood or leaf litter ; it is thus difficult to find.
Rhysida is a large genus of Scolopendromorph centipedes in the subfamily Otostigminae. It is the second largest genus in the subfamily Otostigminae, with species found in the Neotropics, Indo-Malaya, and Africa. It shares some morphological characteristics with the genus Alluropus, and its phylogeny in the subfamily Otostigminae is somewhat uncertain.
Tasmanophilus spenceri is a species of centipede in the Zelanophilidae family. It is endemic to New Zealand. It was first described in 1901 by British zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock. The species epithet spenceri honours British-Australian evolutionary biologist Baldwin Spencer.
Scolopocryptops melanostomus is a species of centipede in the Scolopocryptopidae family. It was described in 1845 by British entomologist George Newport.
