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Centipede and millipede pictures12/29/2023 ![]() ![]() They have a venomous bite, but no Michigan species are dangerous to people.īoth centipedes and millipedes need a damp environment to survive, and mostly live on or under the ground. Centipedes are quick predators, eating any small animals they can catch. Before them the only animals in the world lived in the sea.Ĭentipedes are usually flattened, and only have one pair of legs per segment. Myriapods are an ancient group of animals, they were the the very first animals to live on land. If another animal threatens them, they may curl up, and some give off smelly toxic chemicals to protect themselves. Nearly all millipede species are decomposers: they eat dead leaves, fungi, and detritus. Interestingly, no centipede has an even number of leg sets. They can have anywhere from 30 to 354 legs. The prefix centi- means 100, so many people believe that all centipedes have 100 legs. They move slowly and often tunnel into soil and dead leaves. One difference between a centipede and a millipede is that a centipede only has one set of legs (or two legs total) per body segment. Millipedes usually have round bodies, and have two pairs of legs on each body segment. In Michigan, all myriapods have more than 20 legs, and all the other arthropods have fewer legs than that (most have only 6 or 8 legs). Like insects, myriapods have one pair of antennae, but they have many more legs than insects do. Actually they are arthropods, they have a tough exoskeleton and jointed legs, and they are related to insects and crustaceans. Centipedes and millipedes look similar to each other they both look a little like worms with lots of legs. For some people, the secretion can cause itching, burning or skin irritation., and some small relatives. Centipede Cartoon vectors (473) Cartoon smiling millipede vector Centipede millipede cartoon posing flat insect vector Spring caterpillars cartoon insect. Millipedes, on the other hand, pose no biting risk, but they can leave behind a bad-smelling secretion on your hands when handled. For most people, the bite causes a mild reaction like that of a bee sting, but for people allergic to insect venom the reaction can be severe, according to the University of Georgia Extension. Of the two, centipedes pose more risks to humans because they can bite. You should avoid handling both centipedes and millipedes, but not for the same reason. The smallest centipedes can be less than a half-inch long, while the biggest are more than 1 foot long! Millipedes can be tiny - about one-tenth of an inch long - but some species grow to be more than 10 inches long. ![]() Millipedes are most always found in moist habitats, while centipedes can be found in nearly any habitat.Ĭentipedes and millipedes can both vary greatly in size. Millipede species are far more numerous, with more than 80,000 different kinds of millipedes compared with 8,000 species of centipedes. ![]() Millipedes, on the other hand, mostly eat decaying plant matter, Live Science reports.īoth centipedes and millipedes live on every continent except Antarctica. Centipedes are predators, feasting on smaller arthropods. If it rolls up into a ball and remains still, it's a millipede.Įven the diets of these two arthropods are different from one another. If you uncover an unidentified many-legged creature under a log or pile of leaves and it scatters away, that would be a centipede, according to Live Science. Centipede legs are also typically longer than those of a millipede.īeyond their appearance, you can also tell a centipede from a millipede by their behavior. Centipedes have legs that point away from their bodies, while millipede legs point down at the ground. The position of their legs is probably the easiest way to visually distinguish them from one another. While centipedes have one pair of legs on every body segment, millipedes have two pairs of legs per segment, Live Science reports. And while both types of arthropods have many feet, their legs and feet are the easiest way to tell the difference between a centipede and a millipede. In fact, many millipedes have less than 100 legs, Mother Nature Network reports.īoth centipedes and millipedes belong to a group of arthropods called myriapods, which in Greek translates to "countless feet," Live Science reports. These centipedes are not often encountered, hiding in soil and under leaf litter, where they can grow to 280mm. The names of these arthropods - they are not insects, as commonly thought - may seem to be telling, but both names are misnomers because not all centipedes have 100 legs and no millipedes have 1,000 legs. They do this by expanding and contracting their bodies, similar to earthworms. Among those are centipedes and millipedes, two distinctly different types of creatures that are often confused with one another. Many people don't give a second thought to creepy crawly things in the dirt, but there's a whole ecosystem down there filled with innumerable living things.
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