centipede

Everyday

A centipede is a small long thin creature with a flat body divided into many parts, each with one pair of legs. It is fast, lives in dark damp places and hunts insects. tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons, centipedes are arthropods but not insects (insects have 6 legs). They live under logs and stones in minibeast hunts. They have poison claws to catch prey, and big tropical ones can give a painful bite. Compared with millipedes: centipedes have one pair of legs per body part, are fast hunters; millipedes have two pairs per part, are slow and eat dead plants.

Examples

• A centipede ran out from under the log. tree →
• Centipedes hunt insects and spiders. tree →
• A centipede has one pair of legs on each body part. tree →
• «Centi» means a hundred, but most centipedes don't have exactly 100 legs. tree →
• We found a centipede during our minibeast hunt. tree →
• Big centipedes can bite, so don't pick them up. tree →
• Centipedes like dark, damp places. tree →
• Is it a centipede or a millipede? Count the legs on each section. tree →
• The centipede was invulnerable to weapons! tree →

Note

Countable. «Centi-» = hundred (as in centimetre, century), «-pede» = foot. Maths trap: centipedes always have an odd number of pairs of legs (15, 21, 23…), so never exactly 100 legs (50 pairs). Myth: millipedes do not have 1,000 legs (most have far fewer).