CENTIPEDE, or CENTIPED, one of those myriapods (Chilopoda) with long, many jointed, flattened bodies, each segment bearing only a single pair of appendages, which take the form of legs behind the head. The mouth parts, besides a pair of jaws (mandibles), con sist of two pairs of maxilla:, those of each pair being fused together in the middle. The first pair of legs are fused at their base, and form the poison-fangs, the poison-gland being situated in the base, and the poison oozing out of an orifice at the end of the leg. The single oviduct and corresponding male duct open at the end of the body in the penultimate segment. The centipedes (Scolopendra) are mostly confined to the tropics, a small species extending as far north as North Carolina. Those of the West Indies and the tropics in general are eight to nine inches in length, one species, however, at taining the length of 18 inches. Their bite is dangerous, quite as much so as the sting of the scorpion. They are ferocious when attacked or seized, biting energetically. In the Northern States the centipedes are represented by the species of Lithobius (L. arnericanus), which are wrongly called (earwigs,* and live under stones, under the bark of fallen trees, etc. They prey on insects and worms. They have been ob served to attack earthworms, grappling with them for several hours and, after killing them, sucking their blood. Very long, slender forms are Geophilus and its allies. The body is com
posed of from 19 to nearly 200 segments, each bearing a pair of legs. They are eyeless, and live buried in the sand, coming to the surface under stones.
The centipedes are hatched with numerous segments, and corresponding legs. Wood states that the female of a centipede (Scolopocryptops sexspinosa) guards her young by lying on her side, and then coiling her body, passes them along by a quick action of her feet, thus ar ranging them satisfactorily to herself. He also describes the manner of molting in this species.
The chilopods are more nearly related to the insects than are the millipedes. They are a less ancient group. No true Chilopoda are known to exist in rocks older than the Middle Tertiary period, species of Cermatia, Scolopen dra, Lithobius and Geophilus, having been de tected in amber and the gypsum beds of Aix, Provence, France, of Oligocene age. (See CHILOPODA). Consult Latzel, Myriapoden der Oestreschisch-Ungarischen Monarchic> (Wien 1880) ; Korschelt and Heider, 'Lehr buch der vergleichenden Entwickelungsge schichte der wirbellosen Thiere) (Jena 1891) ; Sinclair, articles on Myriapods, (Cambridge Natural History> (Vol. V, London 1895 Zittel, 'Handbuch der Palwontologie (I Abth., II Bd., Leipzig 1881-85); Wood, 'The Myria poda of North America> ((Transactions,' Amer. Phil. Soc., Philadelphia 1865).