THE ANIMAL FILES

House centipede

Scutigera coleoptrata

A young house centipede has fewer legs than the adult it will become.

House centipedes are long-legged predators with well-developed compound eyes. Their antennae remain important during nocturnal hunting, sensing touch and smell. Growth adds pairs of legs through moulting, so counting the limbs also reveals something about life stage.[1]

Follow the evidence ↓
House centipede
Image: Didier Descouens · Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adult legs
Fifteen pairs[1]
Young legs
Four pairs when newly hatched[1]
Prey
Insects, spiders and other small arthropods[1]

Two ends that can look alike

Long antennae project from the head, while the long hind legs can resemble another pair of antennae at rest. This makes front and rear less obvious to an observer. The body itself is much shorter than the full leg-and-antenna outline, so the animal can appear larger than its trunk measurements suggest.[1]

Adding legs as it grows

Newly hatched young have four pairs of legs. Further pairs appear through successive moults until the adult complement of fifteen is reached. Later moults do not keep adding pairs indefinitely. A small individual with fewer legs is therefore not necessarily an injured adult; it can be following the normal developmental sequence.[1]

Touch and smell during a hunt

Although the eyes are well developed, the antennae are important for detecting prey. Legs and mandibles hold small arthropods, and modified appendages called forcipules deliver venom. Feeding observations describe different responses to different prey hazards.[1]

A COMMON MIX-UP

Does a hatchling already have all fifteen pairs of legs?

No. It begins with four pairs and adds legs through moulting.[1]

TRY A LITTLE REASONING

How would you distinguish missing legs from an immature leg count?

Reveal the explanation

Consider size and the developmental pattern: young animals add pairs in a regular sequence, whereas lost limbs need not match that stage.[1]

Sources & editorial notes

Adapted and translated from the cited Wikipedia revisions, with source-linked reasoning. Image credit and licence are listed separately above.

Adapted and translated from Wikipedia contributors; exact revisions are linked below. CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. Wikipedia contributors — Scutigera coleoptrata (adapted and translated; exact revision)
  2. NCBI Taxonomy — Scutigera coleoptrata (identity and game lineage)

Last fact check:

One discovery leads to another

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