How many legs does a centipede actually have: the number of paws of an animal

Nature amazes with the variety of insects that have an unusual body structure and unique species characteristics. They are found on plants, earth, trees, grass, and water.

But today we will talk about a creature called a centipede, and in common people it is called a “centipede,” but this name has nothing to do with the number of legs.

An insect has many legs, but no one can say exactly how many there are. The number of limbs depends on many factors that play an important role in the life of these creatures.

Home keeping of scolopendra

Terrariums are used for breeding centipedes in captivity.
This is a very mobile insect and at the same time aggressive. They live in captivity for up to seven years. If you have no experience in breeding centipedes, then it is best to study the literature and research all the safety precautions for their maintenance and breeding. Scolopendra has a flexible pleural zone. Thanks to this fact, it can squeeze into the smallest cracks of any rocks and soil in order to hide securely. This centipede is the greatest escape specialist.

When choosing a terrarium, pay attention to the length, width and height. Read the breeding guides; they contain the most complete information about such necessary things as buying a terrarium for centipedes. The soil must be moist and suitable for digging holes

There should be enough humidity, but it shouldn't be too wet

The soil must be moist and suitable for digging holes. There should be enough humidity, but it shouldn't be too wet.

Basically, for all types of centipedes, a temperature of 27 degrees is suitable. If you are getting a special species, consult with a specialist regarding temperature and housing conditions.

At home, it is advisable to feed scolopendra with grasshoppers or mealworms; overfeeding is not recommended. Usually they are fed 1-2 times a week. Scolopendra up to 15 cm in size will be satisfied with 5 crickets. Lack of appetite may mean that the insect is not hungry or is preparing for another molt.

Are flycatchers harmful?

In the apartment, she does not damage the furniture and does not touch human food. She is only interested in insects, and in a few weeks she can clean an apartment of them no worse than a vacuum cleaner.

The flycatcher does not tolerate any diseases, does not attack humans or animals, and generally tries to stay away from all household members. Despite the fact that the insect is poisonous, its disposition is peaceful. If possible, she will not enter into conflict - she will simply run away. Of course, she can try to bite, but only in self-defense.

How many legs do centipedes have: let's count together

Both a tongue twister and an entertaining question for children. How many legs do centipedes have? Any child will answer - forty. But no, not forty at all. How is it possible, I was always forty, it started from childhood.

Let's talk about what centipedes are. What are they like? And we will answer the main question, seemingly known to all of us from a young age.

Centipede is...

A multi-legged insect whose body is quite long. There are several types of these creatures. Some of them grow up to 30 cm in length, while others live their entire short lives at a size of several centimeters.

There are significant differences between centipedes not only in size. This is appearance, lifestyle and, of course, the number of legs.

The body structure is as follows: the smallest representatives of the species have about 10 body segments. The fact is that the insect’s body is divided into segments.

And in those centipedes whose “height” is 30 cm, the number of these same segments sometimes reaches 173. Each of them has one pair of legs, which are located on the sides of the body. The legs are quite short.

How many legs do the smallest and largest centipedes have? This is not difficult to calculate if you know the number of segments of the insect's body.

Interesting Facts

It would seem that what is interesting about an insect that cannot figure out the number of its own legs? However, there are facts in the life of centipedes that cannot be ignored:

These creatures are partial to high humidity. They can easily live in those houses and apartments where the insects like the humidity.
How many pairs of legs do centipedes have? This question is difficult to answer, because they have an odd number of legs.
The scientific name of the insect is scolopendra.
Scolopendra is quite a thing. She can be quite dangerous. What is the danger of such a baby? The fact is that it is poisonous.
They inject poison into their prey.
Are centipedes dangerous for adults? Oddly enough, yes. Meetings with some of the centipede representatives can be fatal for humans.
Particularly dangerous are centipedes—“new settlers”—who choose people as neighbors and decide to move into their apartments for permanent residence.
Only one individual with an even number of legs has been found in nature.
Despite their formidable qualities, centipedes are excellent house cleaners from cockroaches and other nasty insects.
That same centipede, reaching a length of 30 cm, is also called the giant Amazonian centipede. Found in South America. This young lady is very nervous and can jump high when scared. And it feeds on insects, lizards, mice and birds. Not the most inspiring diet. If such an individual bites a person, the latter is not in danger of death. But the poisoning will be obvious.
How many legs do centipedes have? A little more and the secret will be revealed.

The most important question

How many pairs of legs do centipedes have? The answer to this question will be known in a few seconds.

So, attention. Centipedes have between 15 and 346 legs.

Here's how. And not forty at all, as it turned out.

How many pairs of legs do 40 centipedes have? Even if we take as a basis the minimum, that is, 15 legs, simple arithmetic will help us. We multiply 15 by 40 and get 600. An impressive figure, however.

Conclusion

We found out how many legs centipedes have. And there were not forty of them at all. And from 15 to 346, depending on the size of the centipede.

Where did the name common centipede come from?

So why did the insect, which has the scientific name “centipede,” come to be called a centipede, if the number of its limbs can vary both up and down? The fact is that in ancient times this number meant an indefinite amount of something. That is, it used to be believed that “forty” was a lot. And when asked how many legs a centipede has, this is still the number given.

This is where the familiar name for this not very attractive insect comes from. In fact, a given individual may have a different number of legs - it all depends on the specific species.

It is also interesting that the number of legs of a centipede gradually increases as it grows older. Moreover, they can be either barely noticeable or arachnid. But no matter how unattractive the centipede may be, it is absolutely harmless to humans. On the contrary: it is a dangerous enemy for insect pests such as cockroaches and bedbugs. Essentially, it performs the same function as a house cat against mice. Some even keep a couple of centipedes in a terrarium and feed them small insects, but it’s better to get fish!

Note that the common flycatcher looks like it has a lot of legs.

Number of legs in insects

Characteristic features:

relatively small sizes;
two pairs of wings (some are missing);
three pairs of legs.

To date, 900,000 species of insects have been described, but there are many more of them - several million, some of them in a single copy. A number of shapes represent beautiful creations, such as butterflies.

So how many legs do insects have? One of the distinguishing characteristics of this class is the presence of three pairs of paws. They are all located in the thoracic region, with one pair on each of the three component segments.

Ancient insects also had legs on their abdomen, which is still reminiscent of the presence of rudimentary appendages in some modern species.

Under the influence of a certain lifestyle during the process of evolution, these creatures developed several types of paws. The most common of them are running and walking. Primitive insects have just such three pairs of legs. For some representatives of the superclass, changes in external conditions and subsequently in the manner of movement entailed modification of the limbs. The middle pair of legs did not undergo specialization during evolution. It is needed for walking.

Literature

Kluge N. Y. (2000). Modern taxonomy of insects.
Principles of taxonomy of living organisms and the general system of insects with the classification of primary wingless and ancient winged insects. SPb.: Publishing house "Lan". — 336 p.
Kuznetsov N. Ya. (1951). "Class Centipedes (Myriopoda)" Guide to Zoology.
T. 3, part 2. M.: Soviet Science. pp. 124-166.
Barnes, R. D. (1968). Invertebrate Zoology
. W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia. 743 p.
Life of animals.
Encyclopedia in six volumes. Volume 3. (volume dedicated to land arthropods) . General edition by Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Professor L. A. Zenkevich. - Moscow: Education, 1969. - 576 p.

How many legs does a centipede or centipede actually have?

An insect has many legs, but no one can say exactly how many there are. The number of limbs depends on many factors that play an important role in the life of these creatures.

How many legs does a centipede have?

Centipedes belong to a class group called invertebrates. They have an elongated body, which consists of many segments and limbs.

Previously, they were considered the closest relatives of insects, uniting them with the last representatives in a group called taxon.

However, over time, the opinions of experts were divided:

some classify them as representatives of crustaceans;
others speculate that they are similar to chelicerates;
Still others believe that millipedes are a paraphyletic group in relation to insects, which means that apart from ancient family ties they have nothing in common.

But still, people continue to worry about the question of how many legs centipedes have, because no one can answer it accurately. Just look at the creatures and understand that they have many limbs. Depending on the type, their number can range from several tens to several hundred.

There are 12,000 varieties in nature. The number of legs depends on several factors:

invertebrate species;
body parameters;
gender accessories;
habitats.

In fact, the number of legs of centipedes is not 40, it can be from 10 to 173. The record holder for the number of limbs is the black African nodule - it is endowed with 400 legs.

In 2005, scientists identified a representative of the creatures, which for many years was considered an extinct species. They counted 750 legs. The length of the body was 33 cm.

The number of legs depends on the parameters and length of the body. For example, giants, which can have a body length of 35 cm, have over 100 legs.

Within one species there are creatures with different body sizes and the number of legs. Females have 2-3 times more of them compared to males

It is worth paying attention to the fact that as insects grow older, the number of legs in insects increases. They can be almost invisible or arachnid-like

It happens that creatures’ limbs are too long; this is usually observed in representatives that live not only on land, but also in water.

Functions of the legs

Why do centipedes need so many limbs? This question arises immediately upon seeing the creature. They make him scary, they give him a disgusting appearance.

But nevertheless, nature thought of everything and endowed this insect with this feature of body structure for a reason.

The legs of centipedes perform the following functions:

they serve to move. The more limbs, the faster the insect moves;
with the help of them they can cling to plants and trees;
for catching and searching for food;
short legs are able to make passages in the ground through which the creature moves and looks for food;
the tips of the limbs have claws for moving along steep surfaces;
Some representatives have long legs, with the help of which they swim in rivers and reservoirs.

Centipedes are extraordinary creatures that frighten many people. Of course, there is little pleasant in an insect that has a long body and many limbs.

But in fact, this organism is safe, it does not harm people and does not interfere with life. On the contrary, it is beneficial; it gets rid of pests. For this reason, if you see this representative, do not rush to kill him right away.

Main distinguishing feature

Very often, many people who do not know biology well confuse ants with mites or spiders. In fact, the answer is simple - mites have 8 legs, and ants have 6 legs. Our arthropod fauna includes only spiders, ticks and ants. There are some beetles that can imitate the body shape of an ant in order to enter their nest. It is quite difficult to distinguish them from ants.

Laboring insects use their legs for more than just running. Due to the peculiarity of placing them wider than its body, as well as their strength, the insect lifts the weight above itself and carries it. The mass of the load can be 50 times the total mass of the ant itself.

The feet are also used to measure distance

. This is what ants living in deserts do. They serve as a navigational tool for them. The insect remembers how many steps it takes before turning and makes corrections, focusing on the angle.

Scientists have discovered an odor in the feet of ants that releases strong-smelling pheromones. These substances are used for marks during movement. Thanks to this, other individuals can follow the path, since it will become noticeable to them. A large number of marks will attract more brothers.

Sometimes mistakes happen in placing marks, after which the rest of the ants begin to go astray

and run in circles. They close their path with a fresher trail, which can later become a real disaster for the whole family.

Thanks to their thin but mobile legs, ants are able to work wonders, performing very difficult daily work.

Appearance and body structure

The body consists of many parts, each of which has its own meaning:

a head with bristle-like antennae located on it, eyes and mouthparts, which are the upper and lower jaws;
the first pair of limbs is often presented in the form of additional jaws with the presence of poisonous glands for processing food;
the next few segments, most often there are three of them, form the chest of the centipede, on each of them there are up to two pairs of legs;
the main body of an invertebrate may consist of a large number of parts and a corresponding number of legs;
The tail part, on which several pairs of paws are also located, completes the terrifying appearance.

The limbs can be located almost on the sides or on the lower part of the abdomen. Each leg consists of several segments, usually only 6 or 7. At the tip of each paw there is a pointed claw, with the help of which this representative of invertebrates is able to move along any steep surfaces with tremendous speed.

Interesting!

Some arthropods are able to cover a distance of 40 cm in 1-2 seconds.

The length of centipedes varies widely: from 2 mm to 40 centimeters. In regions with a warm climate, for example, in the Crimea, you can find quite large individuals, for example, Crimean hawks, whose body size reaches 4 cm. In areas with a cool climate, small representatives of the superclass are found.

The body of centipedes is segmented. The head consists of 4 or 5 segments. The body is not divided into sections and also consists of homogeneous segments.

The color of centipedes can be black, reddish, or ocher. The younger the individual, the lighter the shade it has.

What does it look like

Almost everyone knows what centipedes look like. The external structure of centipedes is simple. The body is divided into a separate head and torso, consisting of a varying number of segments.

The head is a fusion of the acron and 4 segments of the body. It also has a pair of antennae and 3 pairs of limbs. In labiopods, the head limbs resemble those found in insects.

The body of an adult centipede reaches a length of up to 60 mm. Basic color: from gray with a yellowish tint to bright brown. 3 purple or blue parallel stripes are visualized on the back.

How many legs

Arthropodologists can tell you how many legs centipedes have. They argue that the number of legs changes dynamically as the flycatcher grows and ages. And their number directly depends on the number of body segments. At first, the newborn centipede has 1 to 4 segments with 4 pairs of striped limbs.

As the body grows, new legs appear. In an adult, there are a maximum of 15 pairs. In this case, the outermost pair of limbs is longer than the others and more closely resembles whip-like antennae.

How many legs does a centipede have?

Which animal has the most legs? In centipedes! For such an answer you can easily get the rank not even of Captain, but of General Obviousness.

If someone is not able to immediately imagine what centipedes are, let them remember centipedes or flycatchers, more familiar to our latitudes - useful creatures, the appearance of which, unfortunately, usually causes panic among nervous ordinary people. One look at centipedes is enough to appreciate their “legs”.

But another question - exactly how many legs centipedes have - is not so easy to answer. Zoologists carry out such calculations, and, according to scientific data, the number of legs can reach several hundred, but not more than a thousand: this level is unattainable for centipedes. Some species, however, come very close to this figure. For example, the Puerto Rican Siphonophora millepeda has 742 legs.

In 2005, zoologist Paul Marek from the University of Arizona (USA) discovered the centipede Illacme plenipes, which was considered extinct (the last data on it was in 1928).

The “resurrection” of the centipede would have gone unnoticed if not for the 750 legs of this species, breaking the Puerto Rican record. Moreover, all these legs fit on a body some 3.2 cm long. It is worth clarifying, however: only females I have a monstrous number of legs.

plenipes; males have almost half as many limbs, with an average of 300 to 400.

Centipede I. plenipes (photo by Paul Marek / University of Arizona).

The centipede I. plenipes lives on a small piece of land of 4.5 km² on the outskirts of Silicon Valley (California, USA), in an area occupied by wet oak forests. The arthropod spends most of its time underground - not too deep, however. Over the course of several years since the rediscovery of I.

plenipes, researchers looked for new individuals and continued to study the anatomy and ecology of the centipede. The results of their work were published as an article in ZooKeys. The huge number of legs, researchers believe, helps the animal dig underground passages. With an underground burrowing lifestyle I.

Zoologists say that the centipede needs countless protrusions for protection: at the ends of these projections there are pores that secrete certain chemicals to repel predators. Perhaps too many legs just help animals overcome the resistance of all these outgrowths and protrusions that make movement difficult.

Fragment of the body of the centipede I. plenipes under an electron microscope.

The back of I. plenipes is covered with many bristles that secrete a substance similar to sticky silk threads. Scientists find it difficult to say why centipedes need this.

One explanation is that with the help of this sticky silk the arthropod protects itself from debris, which can be easily cleaned off in such a sticky wrapper.

I. plenipes feed on the juices of plants and fungi, and their mouth is modified accordingly: they cannot grab and tear food, they only prick and suck. At the same time, they have an intestine of exceptional length, which forms a spiral inside the body.

A long intestine allows for more complete absorption of water and nutrients. And, as scientists believe, it could be an indirect reason for the increase in the number of legs.

That is, additional legs are only a by-product, a secondary result of embryological processes, the main goal of which is to lengthen the intestines.

Researchers hope that they will be able to find these super-legged creatures somewhere else: it would be a pity if their range was equal to the area of several football fields. According to scientists, they have discovered several more areas in California that are very similar to the oak forests where the centipede lives.

For further research, zoologists need material, so they need to make sure that scientific efforts will not harm the animals, that there are enough of them to withstand the research onslaught.

However, whatever else scientists discover about this centipede, it is unlikely to be as amazing as its 750 legs.

« Go back | All news | Next news »

Transformations of the cockchafer

During its development, the cockchafer goes through several stages: egg, larva and pupa. They form and then strengthen the shell, wings, and legs. The pupa already closely resembles an adult beetle, but its nervous system and wings have not yet been formed. an amazing fact: according to scientists’ calculations, the wings simply physically cannot lift the beetle’s body into the air, but this does not prevent it from flying. The female lays eggs in the spring, and full-fledged insects appear only in April-May of the following year. The lifespan of these insects is four to five years.

Now the reader knows how many legs a beetle has. Why are they used by insects, and how do they affect their habitat.

Comments

Similar materials

Law How many federal districts are there in Russia and what are they intended for?

Over the past twenty-five years, our country has experienced a lot of upheavals that directly affected its future. The first of them is the collapse of the USSR, which meant the destruction of the entire system of public administration...

Law At what age do you change your passport and why do you need to exchange it?

Russian legislation states that a passport is the main document of a citizen of the Russian Federation. Moreover, obtaining a Russian passport is the responsibility of every citizen of the Russian Federation. But a person changes, along with him to...

Health How to reduce the temperature in an adult and what can cause it to rise.

High fever occurs frequently and in many people. But it's worth noting that you don't always need to rush to lower your temperature right away. Of course, if it rises to a critical point, it will need to be brought down immediately...

Fashion What does a ring on a woman's thumb mean, and why is it worn like that?

Many people wear rings (teenagers and older people, men and women), not only on various fingers, but also on their toes. But it turns out that this decoration on this or that finger necessarily means something or...

News and society A bird's crop is... What is it for?

Birds are a special class of animals, whose representatives have conquered the sky. And for this, Mother Nature rewarded them with a number of devices in the external and internal structure. Streamlined body shape, feathers, wings, o...

Arts and Entertainment How many strings does a double bass have and how does it differ from other stringed instruments?

String instruments can be called the basis of the entire orchestra. Having a wide sound range - from the low sounds of the double bass to the high notes of the violin - in the end they all intertwine into one whole. Number of string instruments...

News and Society How many legs does a butterfly have? How many legs does a butterfly have?

You, of course, know what a butterfly looks like, but what does it like to eat, where does it live, how does it reproduce and, finally, how many legs does a butterfly have? All these questions are sure to confuse many people. And that means you need everything...

News and Society How many legs do insects have? We answer such an interesting question

For example, how many legs do insects have? When it comes to other types of animals, you can answer in monosyllables, giving one number. Another thing is insects. This question will have to be analyzed at length and in detail. Six...

News and society Marine life. Octopus. Description, features. How many legs does an octopus have?

The octopus is a representative of the order of marine mollusks belonging to the class of cephalopods. All individuals are characterized by a sac-like body. Further in the article we will find out the characteristics of these animals, how many legs an octopus has. Fo...

News and Society How many legs do ants have?

How many legs do ants have? The answer to the question is obvious: like all representatives of the insect class, six. Moreover, the number of legs is one of the characteristics of this taxonomic unit of the arthropod type of the animal kingdom...

Limb types

Limb classification:

Runners. They have an elongated shape and are slender. Consist of narrow or wide legs, lower leg, thigh and coxa. Examples of such legs are the legs of ground beetles and cockroaches;
Walking legs. Designed for slow movement. Leaf beetles, longhorn beetles, and beetles that slowly crawl from leaf to leaf have such paws;
Representatives of the order Orthoptera (grasshopper, locust, cricket) have jumping limbs. Their last pair of legs is powerful and long. Many orthopterans jump eighty centimeters high; if they straighten their wings, they can cover up to 10 meters in one jump;
The swimming legs (usually the hind legs, less often the middle ones) are covered with long hairs that form a wide rowing surface of a kind - an oar. Representatives with such limbs mainly live in bodies of water. They swim and dive well. These are, for example: swimming beetles, water lovers, smooth bugs;
Digging - most often the first pair of legs. These limbs are powerful, short and flat.
Collective limbs or basket limbs. Bees and bumblebees have it. The hind legs have special areas surrounded by chitinous, long hairs - baskets. Moving from flower to flower, the bees get dirty with pollen that sticks to the hairs. Using special brushes on its legs, the insect collects pollen in a basket, takes it to the hive and deposits it in the honeycomb.
Suction limbs. In the males of some species (ground beetles, diving beetles), the legs at the ends of the tarsi have expanded segments. During reproduction, males use this device to clasp females when mating.
Grasping paws armed with sharp spines. They are used by the predator (mantis) to hold its prey.

The speed of an ant is in its paws

It has 3 pairs of legs, so there are 6 legs in total, this is the main difference between an insect and a spider. All pairs of paws have their own sizes and proportions and are located on a separate part of the chest. The front legs are on the front of the chest. These paws have special devices that resemble miniature brushes. With their help, the insect cleans its whiskers and other legs.

The hind legs are equipped with spurs that perform specific functions. Most often, spurs serve as weapons of defense or attack. Insects use them to fight other ants. Due to the unique structure of their legs, ants can perform many useful and vital actions with their help.

Very often, insects are forced to move along a smooth and steep surface. Due to the structure of their paws, this is not an obstacle for them. Very small ants can move on any surface, such as glass, which cannot be said about spiders or cockroaches.

Reasons for the appearance of ants in the apartment

The small serrations on their paws help them overcome many obstacles along the way. With their help, ants cling to protrusions on the surface. The bark of trees and stones are their natural habitat, so they move along them like stairs at high speed. Some species can move at speeds of up to 4 km/hour.

Also, thanks to their paws, some types of ants can swim. Australian bulldog ants are able to swim across a distance of 15 meters, for example, a puddle in their path. Insects of this species also jump well; the jump can reach 50 cm in length.

How many legs does a centipede have?

The second name of these insects is centipedes, but it is interesting that among the more than 10,000 species known to science, there is not a single representative with the number of legs equal to 40. How many are there really?

Centipedes are a special class of invertebrate animals that are distinguished by an elongated body with many segments and even more limbs. Previously, millipedes were considered as the closest relatives of insects and were combined with the latter into a taxon.

Currently, the opinions of scientists are divided.

Some believe that centipedes should be closer in taxonomy to crustaceans, others compare them with chelicerates, and still others are of the opinion that millipedes are a paraphyletic group in relation to insects, that is, other than ancient kinship they have little in common.

A wooden floor with cracks in a room attracts insects, opening up a lot of opportunities for home improvement and reproduction. A simple coating of mastic or varnish will help solve the problem - insects cannot stand the smell of chemicals.

If arthropods in the house feel more than at ease despite all preventive measures, continue to reproduce and are increasingly seen even during the day, it is worth trying to use repellents or insecticidal sprays for crawling creatures

It doesn’t matter whether the flytrap is an insect or not, drugs of this kind most often have a wide spectrum of action

In conclusion, we note that killing living beings, even if they are not the most pleasant in appearance, is inhumane. Therefore, in order to prevent an uncomfortable neighborhood at home, you need to try to create conditions unfavorable for insects. Scolopendra, also known as the flytrap, is of little danger to humans; its appearance in an apartment is the result of a violation of sanitary standards, which means that responsibility for solving the problem also lies solely with the owners of the apartment.

Why do centipedes need so many limbs? This question arises immediately upon seeing the creature. They make him scary, they give him a disgusting appearance.

The legs of centipedes perform the following functions:

they serve to move. The more limbs, the faster the insect moves;
with the help of them they can cling to plants and trees;
for catching and searching for food;
short legs are able to make passages in the ground through which the creature moves and looks for food;
the tips of the limbs have claws for moving along steep surfaces;
Some representatives have long legs, with the help of which they swim in rivers and reservoirs.

This is interesting

According to scientists, many people, after reading this material, will not consider their home the same as before. Almost none of us knows or imagines how many species of insects live inside an apartment. According to NC State researchers, it could be hundreds! Experts involved in the research counted more than 500 species:

insects;
crustaceans;
spiders;
scolopendra, etc.

PeerJ magazine published a detailed report on this.

Researchers visited 50 homes located in different areas of North Carolina in the United States from May to October 2012. Carrying out research, experts took samples of the living creatures they discovered to determine the species. The number of species turned out to be terrifying: 579 species of arthropods belonging to 304 families. Even in the cleanest houses, about 100 different species of insects were found, belonging to one hundred and twenty-eight families. The most common:

flies;
worms;
spiders;
beetles;
skin beetles;
cockroaches;
ants; centipedes;
lice;
arthropods, etc.

Based on the research results, it was concluded that hundreds of species of different living creatures live with humans in symbiosis, without causing harm or disturbing him.

“No one has ever conducted such studies, so one should not expect that these insects cannot be hiding in other houses. We crawled on all fours with flashlights, collecting everyone who appeared on the way into bottles. Like it or not, there are different types of insects living in your homes. Species such as spiders and the house centipede can be considered harmless to humans,” says one of the study’s authors, Professor Matt Bertone, an entomologist at North Carolina State University.

Therefore, despite the appearance and horror that the centipede inspires in you, it is worth considering whether it is necessary to destroy it and fight it. Maybe she will turn out to be a reliable ally in the fight against a whole army of other no less nasty and harmful insects inhabiting your apartments.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=bIlVDAm-u20

Varieties of centipedes and their habitat

There are a lot of varieties of centipedes, almost all of them are similar in body structure and a large number of legs. Let's look at the most famous species of centipedes and their habitat.

Scolopendra scutigera is a centipede from the order Scutigeromorpha of the labiopod class. The adult is 35 to 60 mm long, yellow-gray in color with long striped legs.

Feeds on small insects. Lives in Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. They are also found in the territory of Ukraine, the Caucasus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and southern Russia.

The natural habitat of the common flycatcher is dry fallen leaves. With the onset of cold weather, it begins to seek shelter, so it may end up in an apartment, especially in damp rooms - a bathroom, toilet, basement.

Scolopendra scutigera - the common flycatcher eats a fly on a person's hand

It is practically safe for humans, as it cannot bite through the skin of humans and pets. The maximum harm that scolopendra scutigera can cause to a person is redness and swelling of the skin; its bite is comparable to the sting of one wasp.

The giant scolopendra lives most often in the west and north of South America, on the islands of Trinidad and Jamaica. They feed on insects in the same way as other species of centipedes, but there are known cases of giant centipedes attacking lizards, toads, mice and even birds.

The strongly built body consists of 21-23 segments of brown or red color with a pair of bright yellow legs. Poisonous jaws can cause harm to a person in the form of swelling, redness and severe pain, and occasionally fever, weakness and fever. For an adult, the venom of the giant scolopendra is not fatal. The poison consists of the following substances: contains acetylcholine, serotonin, histamine, lecithin, thermolysins, hyaluronidases.

The ringed scolopendra is the most common species of centipede in Southern Europe and the countries of the Mediterranean basin, including Italy, Spain, France, Turkey, Greece, and Crimea. He also lives in Northern Africa: Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco.

It is inferior in size to the giant centipede, reaching an average of 10-15 cm. The venom of the ringed centipede is also not as toxic as that of its “big brother”. A very fast and agile predator, it hunts almost all living creatures that are smaller in size - insects, lizards.

In Chinese medicine, this type of scolopendra is used to speed up the healing of skin diseases and injuries.

The California scolopendra lives in arid areas of the United States and Mexico, although other scolopendra species prefer wetter habitats.

A bite from a California scolopendra or touching its legs when disturbed can cause minor harm to a person in the form of inflammation. There have even been cases of rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure after being bitten by this centipede.

Scolopendra Lucas

Lucas's centipede, like the ringed one, lives in the southern part of Europe. Distinctive features are the heart-shaped head and rusty color. The harm from contact with it is identical to most other centipedes.

Classification

Centipedes do not form a fairly monolithic class, but are divided into groups so different from each other that many zoologists divide the class of millipedes into four different classes.

We will consider these groups at the rank of subclasses. The class of centipedes (Myriapoda) is divided into four subclasses, two of which are of greatest importance: 1. Dipopods (Diplopoda); 2. Lipopods (Chilopoda).

Subclass Diplopoda

This largest group includes about 7,200 species of moisture-loving centipedes that live in the forest floor, under fallen trees and in stumps. They, unlike some labiopods, rarely climb tree trunks.

Bipeds feed on rotting leaves and decaying wood. Due to their abundance, they bring significant benefits by participating in the mineralization of organic residues: forest litter, dead wood, etc.

In our fauna, peculiar centipedes are common - nooks (genus Julus), with an almost round body in cross section, distinguished by a very large number of legs and slow movements. Nozzles, disturbed by something, curl up into a spiral.

Many bipeds have venom glands on the lateral sections of their dorsal scutes. In some tropical species of millipedes, the poison contains hydrocyanic acid; it was once used by Indians to poison arrows.

Subclass Labiopods Chilopoda

A large group (2800 species) of labiopods are represented by active predators, in contrast to all other millipedes, which feed on decaying or living parts of plants. The predation of labiopods is associated with the transformation of the first pair of their trunk legs into grasping jaws equipped with a poisonous gland.

Labiopods, like all centipedes, lead a predominantly secretive nocturnal lifestyle. During the day, you should look for them under fallen leaves and stones, in hollows and under the bark of dead trees, etc. A small (up to 3.2 cm in length) centipede drupe (Lithobius forficatus) is common in our fauna. She has 16 pairs of legs, of which the hind ones are greatly elongated and perform a tactile function. There are rather long antennae on the head.

In the Crimea, the Caucasus and Central Asia, small centipedes with very long limbs, called flycatchers, are found in human habitations (houses). Eyeless centipedes geophiles with a very large number of segments (more than 170) live in the soil, sometimes deep from the surface. Geophilus longicornis is common in our fauna.

The largest of the labiopods, the poisonous centipedes, are widely represented in the tropics. In the Crimea, the Caucasus and Moldova, the ringed scolopendra (Scolopendra cingulata) is found, reaching a length of 10-17 cm.

Its bite causes not only severe swelling in a person, but also general poisoning. The temperature rises to 38-39°C, general weakness and headache are observed. However, all painful phenomena go away on their own after 1-2 days. The bite of the Brazilian giant scolopendra (S. gigas) also does not appear to be fatal.

https://natural-museum.ru/invertebrates/centipedes

https://4shvostikom.ru/raznoe/sorokonozhka-eto-nasekomoe-ili-zhivotnoe.html

Crabs (decapods)

Short-tailed crayfish, also known as crabs, belong to the order of decapod crustaceans from the class of higher crayfish. In addition to the crabs themselves, decapod crustaceans include numerous species of shrimp, lobsters and crayfish. The latter, for example, the hermit crab, externally have eight legs, because two are hidden in the shell and are used to clean the gills. There are about 15 thousand species of decapods in total.