How Many Legs Does a Centipede Have? (Hint: Even We are Surprised!)

How Many Legs Does a Centipede Have? (Hint: Even We are Surprised!)

Our fully inclusive guide on centipedes, and the surprising amount of legs they actually have!

Centipedes. They’re well known as having a lot of legs, right? the average person pretty much imagines them as being a worm – type creature with legs, and although this isn’t far wrong in vague appearance, there is so much more to them than that.

Ever wondered how many legs a centipede actually has?

Well, read on for our fully inclusive guide on centipedes and the number of legs they actually have. Trust us, you’ll want to know, even we are surprised!

 Centipedes: The Origin Fact File

We’re going to be starting off by giving you a little fact file on the origin of the most common centipede found, which is the house centipede.

It belongs to the following origins:

KINGDOM: Animalia.

CLASS: Chilopoda

ORDER: Scutigeromorpha

FAMILY: Scutigeridae

GENUS: Scutigera

SPECIES: S. Coleoptrata

One of the most curious things about centipedes, is that despite being an arthropod, it actually feeds on other arthropods too, such as insects and even arachnids. We know, bit of a “Hannibal Lecter” thing going on.

All of this a bit science – driven for you? Read on for more information on the centipede.

 How Do I Know that It’s a Centipede I’m Dealing With?

Okay, so a lot of people don’t actually know how to identify a centipede – and don’t worry, we’ll be getting onto the number of legs shortly!

Chances are you may have seen a millipede before, and mistaken it for a centipede. Similarly, you might have seen a centipede, and mistaken it for a millipede. It’s easily done if you don’t know what it is that you’re looking for to tell them apart!

With that in mind, how can you really tell whether or not it’s a centipede you’re dealing with?

There are some definitive visual signs! Read on to find out more.

•         Centipedes have elongated, flat, and segmented bodies.
•         The body itself is encamped by a pair of legs per each segment.
•         Centipedes have a flattened head, and bear a forcipule.
•         They also have two antennae and a compound eye.
•         Their eyes are actually only capable of differentiating light from dark. Other than that, they don’t really have any other sort of vision.
•         Depending on the species of centipede in question, its’ length can range. This is usually somewhere between four mm all the way up to one hundred and fifty two mm.
•         They have claw – like structures. These contain a venom gland, which they use specifically to paralyse their prey. Their prey tends to be spiders, other insects, small invertebrates and so on.
•         In colour, centipedes are usually brown / red / orange to look at. However, they can also appear in several other colours depending on their species – so don’t be fooled!
•         Regardless of this, they always have a pair of antennae attached to their head, which are usually long and sensitive.
•         As mentioned above, they have numerous legs attached to the structure of their body, which is undoubtedly what they’re best known for.
•         They are most likely to be found in humid and moist habitats.
•         They also have a forcipule, which they actually use as a jaw. They use this to inject their poisonous venom into their prey.

The above list should help you in your identification of the centipede. If it doesn’t happen to have these features, then it ain’t a centipede!

How Many Legs Does a Centipede Actually Have Then?

And finally, we’ve gotten here. To the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The great reveal of how many legs a centipede actually has!

The word “centipede” itself actually refers to a “one – hundred footed creature”. The surprising thing about this, is that not all centipedes have one – hundred feet.

Unlike a millipede, centipedes have one pair of legs per segment. So the number of legs they have entirely depends on the number of segments that make up their body in total. Does that make sense?

Other than body segments, the number of legs a centipede has will depend on:

•         The actual species of the centipede we are discussing.
•         The age of the centipede we are discussing.

Young and fully grown centipedes tend to differ in their number of legs. Overall, however, the number of legs of the average centipede can range anywhere between thirty, all the way up to three hundred and fifty four.

Not quite the hundred footed creature after all, right?