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Tropical Centipede
Order Scolopendromorpha
-26.2735, 31.9877
Field Notes
Description:
Formidable arsenal of arms and armor. In the first picture my ring can be seen as a size reference. The legs were a bit blueish and the back a bit more black.
Habitat:
I found it on the road when driving in the early evening.
Notes:
According to Wikipedia, there are estimated to be 8,000 species of centipede, of which 3,000 have been described.
The clade Epimorpha, consisting of orders Geophilomorpha and Scolopendromorpha, exhibits epimorphy: all pairs of legs are developed in the embryonic stages, and offspring do not develop more legs between moults. It is this clade that contains the longest centipedes; the maximum number of thoracic segments may also vary intra-specifically, often on a geographical basis; in most cases, females bear more legs than males. The number of leg-bearing segments varies widely, from 15 to 191, but the developmental mode of their creation means that they are always added in pairs — hence the total number of pairs is always odd.
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