Palæos:		Chilopoda
INVERTEBRATES		Chilopoda Home

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Arthropods

Cladogram

 
photo from Bugyman

There are approximately 3000 known species of Centipedes.  Although some tropical forms grow to huge size (18 to 26 cm) the majority are much smaller - around 3 to 6 cm   These long-bodied myriapods have many trunk segments; On each segment (not counting the head) there is a single pair of legs.

The head has 2 pairs of maxillae (jaws).  The jaws are covered by a large pair of poison claws, actually the first pair of legs (called maxillipeds) which are modified to look and function like jaws (see photo, left) and contain venom glands.

The eyes are usually simple, though one group has compound eyes.  Centipedes are predators.  They live in soil and humus and beneath stones, bark, and logs.  Gait is a wriggling running motion.   In size they range from 5 mm to almost 30 cm.

Subclass Epimorpha
Order Geophilomorpha
Order Scolopendromorpha

Subclass Anamorpha
Order Lithobiomorpha
Order Scutigeromorpha

RNA and DNA sequencing [2] gives the following
1.Notostigmophora (=Scutigeromorpha)
2.Pleurostigmophora
   2a. Lithobiomorpha
   2b. Craterostigmomorpha (included in Epimorpha sensu latu)
   2c. Epimorpha sensu stricta. (= Scolopendromorpha + Geophilomorpha),

Chilopod cladogram, from Edgecombe, G. D. and Giribet, G., 2002

Order Craterostigmomorpha
There are 15 pairs of legs and only 7 sets of spiracles. Seem to represent a transitional stage between the Lithobiomorpha and the Scolopendromorpha. Only one genus (Craterostigma) which is found in Tasmania and New Zealand.  Length 2-5 cm

Order Scolopendromorpha
Large, robust, heavy bodied mostly tropical forms.  21 to 23 trunk segments and pairs of legs, with even spacing.  4 pairs of simple eyes (ocelli).  Eggs brooded, young posses all segments on hatching.  May be brightly coloured, and usually highly venomous.  Aggressive, feed on vertebrates (e.g. frogs, mice) The tropical American species Scolopendra gigantea reaches 26 cm in length.

Order Geophilomorpha
Small, slender thread-like soil-dwelling, burrowing, eyeless forms, 31 to 181 pairs of legs.  Spiracles on every body segment except first and last.  Eggs brooded, young posses all segments on hatching.  The largest form, the North American Orya barbarica reaches 15 - 17 cm but most species are only about 3-5 cm long. Widely distributed.  Usually white in colour.  Related to the Scolopendromorpha.

Adults with 15 pairs of  legs.  Markedly modified for their epigenic mode of life  Short rigid body.  Legs and antennae very long.  Eyes large and compound.  Unpaired spiracles.  1 tergal plate per two segments.  No brooding, young do not posses all segments on hatching.  Active fast-moving above-ground hunters.   World-wide distribution, especially in the tropics.  Some species live in and around human habitations.  The common House Centipede, Scutigera coleoptera, shown in the image, belongs to this group.  One of the largest species,  Scutigera longicornis from India reaches 5 -7 cm, but most are smaller.   

Links

Links

Other invertebrates - centipedes - at the Australian Museum

Robert D. Barnes, Invertebrate Zoology, Saunders College, Philadelphia, 1980

A Checklist of the Metazoa 5

MIRIAPODI - includes selected genera and species

Giribet G, Carranza S, Riutort M, Baguna J, Ribera C - "Internal phylogeny of the Chilopoda (Myriapoda, Arthropoda) using complete 18S rDNA and partial 28S rDNA sequences".-  Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 1999 Jan 29;354(1380):215-22