How fast is a centipede?

 

     Millipedes are a group of arthropods (invertebrates with jointed legs) that are characterized by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments. Most millipedes have very elongated cylindrical or flattened bodies with more than 20 segments. The name millipede is derived from Latin for "thousand feet,” no species was known to have 1,000 or more until the discovery of Eumillipes persephone, which can have over 1,300 legs. 

     Millipede are not to be confused with their cousins the centipedes’ they are entirely different. Centipedes are aggressive predators that use venom to subdue their prey. Centipedes are often the target of pest control measures, but in fact, they are one of nature’s best exterminators! They are night stalkers...they come out at night from their hidey holes to feed on cockroaches, flies, bedbugs, crickets, spiders and snails. Everyone thinks centipedes bite humans, but they don’t because they can’t get through your skin. 

     House centipedes have far fewer than the 100 legs their name suggests. They’re born with only eight legs and the count reaches 30 as they reach adulthood. 

     The house centipede’s legs get progressively longer toward the rear, which creates its characteristic outline and keeps them from getting tangled when they are running fast. 

     Of those 30 legs, besides used for walking, some are other useful and versatile tools. One paleontologist called them Swiss army knives because they use different legs for different functions. 

     When hunting, the house centipede uses its legs as a rope to restrain prey in a tactic called lassoing. The tip of each leg is so finely segmented and flexible that it can coil around its victim to prevent escape. 

     The centipede’s venom-injecting fangs are also modified legs! They are shorter and thicker than the walking legs and they are multi-jointed, which makes them far more dexterous than the fangs of insects and spiders, which hinge in only one plane. Because of this dexterity, the centipede’s fangs not only inject venom, but also hold prey in place while the centipede feeds. 

     They also function as grooming tools. The centipede passes its legs through the fangs to clean and lubricate their sensory hairs which need to be kept clean. They groom down one side of their body and then the other and if the process is interrupted , when they resume they simply pick up where they left off. 

     Because of their length and the fact that the centipede holds their hind legs aloft when they walk, the back legs give the appearance of a second pair of antennae making the house centipede look like it has two heads. 

     Of course it doesn’t have a second head, but the appearance of a second head, known as auto-mimicry and it occurs in some fish, birds and butterflies. It’s a defense mechanism that serves to fool predators. 

     New research turned an electron microscope on the centipede’s legs and found as many sensory hairs, or sensilla, on them as on the antennae. It was found that the house centipede's back legs rival its front antennae in length. 

     It’s believed that the presence of so many sensory hairs on the centipede’s long back legs are not merely dummies used for defensive purposes, but but they serve a special function, but scientists are not sure but think they are possibly in mate selection. During courtship, both the male and female house centipede slowly raise and lower their antennae and back legs, followed by mutual tapping and probing. On a final note, house centipedes are highly cannibalistic. 

     What about the question, how fast can they run? They can cover about 16 inches a second; that’s only about 0.91 miles per hour, but if you’re trying to step on one it’s fast. A common black ant runs at about 0.18 miles per hour. So, a house centipede is five times faster than an ant. However, as far as centipede are concerned, pound for pound about the same as a human running 42 miles per hour. Usain Bolt's average ground speed was a bit over 23 miles per hour although he did briefly hit almost 28 miles per hour.