Centipede - A fairly well-known creature, largely due to its unusual appearance, namely a large number of legs. It belongs to arthropods, the class of millipedes, which confirms its interesting body structure from numerous segments. The creature's name is not related to how many legs the centipede has, but it definitely indicates their unusually large numbers.
Body structure of a centipede
The body consists of many parts, each of which has its own meaning:
- a head with bristle-shaped antennas located on it, eyes and mouth organs representing 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 food processing;
- the next few segments, most often three of them, form the chest of the centipede, on each of them up to two pairs of legs;
- the invertebrate body may consist of a large number of parts and the corresponding number of legs;
- the awesome appearance is completed by the tail part, on which several pairs of paws are also located.
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 on any steep surfaces with great speed.
Interesting!
Some arthropods are able to cover a distance of 40 cm in 1-2 seconds.
Species diversity
There are about 12,000 millipede species. The number of legs of a centipede is very different depending on:
- species of invertebrate;
- sizes;
- gender;
- habitat.
Most often, the number of pairs of arthropod paws ranges from 10 to 173. The champion in terms of the number of legs is black African nodule - he has about 400 of them.
Interesting!
In 2005, a zoological scientist accidentally discovered a representative of the species of millipedes, which had been considered extinct for many years, with 750 paws. Its size was 33 cm in length.
The number of limbs is directly related to the size and length of the body. Some giants are 35 cm long and have many legs. Within one species of these invertebrates, individuals with different numbers of legs can be found. Females usually have 2-3 times more paws than males.
