CENTIPEDE

(class Chilopoda) any of about 2,800 species of long, flattened, many-segmented predaceous anthropods with each segment bearing one pair of legs, except the hindmost. They are commonly grouped with several other classes as myriapods. Centipedes remain under stones, bark, and ground litter by day; at night they capture other small invertebrates. They move rapidly on from 14 to 177 pairs of legs and have one pair of long, many-jointed antennae and a pair of jawlike, venomous claws just behind the head. The 25-millimetre (1-inch) house centipede (order Scutigerida, or Scutigeromorpha) of Europe and North America is the only one common in dwellings. It has a short, striped body and 15 pairs of very long legs. Other centipedes have shorter, hooklike legs; in some the last pair is pincerlike. Giant centipede (Scolopendra gigantea). Soil centipedes (order Geophilida, or Geophilomorpha) are burrowers; they alternately expand and contract the body, in the manner of earthworms. The order Scolopendrida, or Scolopendromorpha, of the tropics contains the largest centipedes; Scolopendra gigantea of the American tropics may reach a length of 280 mm (11 inches). These forms are capable of inflicting severe bites. Scolopendrids, as well as the geophilids, have relatively slow and sinuous movements. The little stone centipedes (order Lithobiida, or Lithobiomorpha) are short-bodied; they and the house centipedes are the fastest moving centipedes, running with the body held straight.