Anyone who only knows the term "Centipede" from a film, the second part of which confiscated , which is why we don't mention the title, will be able to answer clearly that centipedes and millipedes have much fewer legs... at least when they are human are made. But this is about the crawling arthropods, which are said to have many legs based on their name.
And how many are there actually?
It would be nice if we could just write a number now, because then the article would be finished now. However, it is a little more complicated. The number of legs in millipedes varies greatly, but is never exactly 100 and never as many as 1,000. According to the National Park Service, millipedes have fewer than 36 to 400 legs, while centipedes have fewer than 20 to more than 300.
The body of a centipede consists of individual segments, with each segment having only one pair of legs. They are arthropods , meaning they have a non-living exoskeleton. This should mean that they always have an even number of legs, right? Well, not so with centipedes!
In the embryonic phase, centipedes form two pairs of legs per segment, i.e. four legs. In the first segment, however, the first pair of legs is converted , so that the first segment only has one pair of legs (two legs). The number of pairs of legs is therefore always odd! So if a centipede had 100 legs, it would have to have 50 pairs of legs - and that's not possible because of the first segment.
Millipede or millipede ?
Since we already suspect that there will be comments on Facebook:
Strictly logically millipedes correct, since it is a subgenus of arthropods , but the name millipedes is generally used . According to Duden, both names are correct.
An important difference between millipedes and centipedes!
Has lots of legs and crawls… do I need to know more?
Yes, you have to! The very common millipedes move rather slowly because they have short, stubby legs. In addition, they cannot bite or sting: To defend themselves, they simply curl up to protect their sensitive little legs. In contrast to the centipedes, they are also vegetarians.
Centipede, on the other hand, are seen less often as they are mostly nocturnal and hide under stones and dead wood during the day as they quickly lose body moisture. In addition, as mentioned above, they have a pair of poisonous claws; exotic specimens can even kill . Many species also have two sensory organs on their buttocks that look like antennae but are directed backwards.
But if you should ever discover a centipede: Don't kill it, because the animals are effective pest controllers! But if they multiply too much, you can simply dissolve silica powder in water and spray the ground with it, then the crawlers will stay away.
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Notes:
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