Is it humanly possible that you’ve never stumbled ever? Not really. And remember we are mere bipeds, with just two feet. Have we ever paused to wonder about centipedes, the hundred-legged creatures? Do they stumble too? Well, apparently not.

That does bring us to one question? Does the centipede really have hundred feet? If you are tempted to answer “no” simply because we asked you the question, you could be wrong and if you’ve answered yes, you are not entirely right either.

Some centipedes have as less as twenty-eight feet and some others have as many as three hundred and fifty four. And there are some that do have a hundred feet. They all belong to a species called Myriapoda, which means “many feet”.

The centipede, although classified as Myriapoda, broadly comes under the section Arthropods. The word “arthropods” is derived from the Greek arthron meaning ‘joint’ and podos, which means ‘foot’. The arthropod body plan is a special segmented one. This species is said to be one of the oldest one still in existence. They are said to have been in existence since millions of years.

There are four groups of Myriapods: Symphyla, Pauropoda, Chilopoda and Diplopoda. The Symphyla and Pauropoda, are tiny arthropods for whom home sweet home is leaf, litter and soil. Both the species superficially resemble centipedes. However, the true centipedes are the Chilopoda and if you can count the number of body segments they have, multiply it by two and you know how many legs they have! This is because they have one pair of legs per body segment.

Many species possess repugnatorial glands. Look at the meaning of the word; it tells you the function of the gland. Secretions from the gland make the animal repugnant. And the purpose of making oneself repugnant is obviously self-defense.

It is an interesting fact that a centipede comes out off an egg. When the egg is hatched, only

A Centipede

some varieties come out with their complete set of legs. Some others have seven pairs at birth and then develop additional pairs each time they shed their skin, until they are fully-grown. A centipede’s body is generally flat.

Imagine how boring it would be to use all the legs for walking! Well, the first pair of ‘legs’ is slightly different. Nature has modified it into a pair of pincer-like jaws, with poison glands. And this is used to satisfy the primary need of any living creature, hunger. Chilopods are predators and carnivores. They feed on other arthropods. They capture their prey with their pincer-like jaws. They are nocturnal creatures that hunt during the night and hide under decayed wood or rocks during the day. The bite of large centipedes can cause humans some pain and discomfort. However, there have been no known cases of fatalities resulting from a centipede’s bite.

Their cousin, the millipede is also a Myriapoda, and its name means “thousand legs”. However, scientists say that there is no known millipede with more than seven hundred and ten legs. Of course, the count is still higher than the centipede’s. Millipedes are also called wireworms. This is because the millipede has a body of rounded segments.

Early in the development stage (in the embryonic stage, to be more specific), adjacent segments fuse together. Therefore, each adult segment of a millipede has two pairs of legs. So, if you are counting legs, all you have to do is to count the segments and multiply by four! Most millipedes feed on decaying vegetation, although some are carnivorous like their cousins, the centipedes.

There are 7,50,000 species of insects under the broad classification of arthropods. Of these, there are only eleven thousand varieties of centipedes and millipedes put together.