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Skip Navigation LinksLife Forms==> Animal - Animalia==> Jointed Legged Animals - Arthropoda==> Centipedes - Chilopoda==> Scutigera forceps Centipede - House
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Centipede - House
Scutigera forceps
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Dorsal View - - Okanogan, Washington, USA

Dorsal View - - Okanogan, Washington, USA

Dorsal View - - Okanogan, Washington, USA

Narrative

This lifeform is generally found west of the Continental Divide in North America

Centipedes (Class Chilopoda) contain about 3,000 different species. These worm-like creatures are frequently called the one hundred-legged animal. Actually, the legs are only around one third to one half that many.

Jointed Legged Animals (Phylum Arthropoda) make up the largest phylum. There are probably more than one million different species of arthropods known to science. It is also the most successful animal phylum in terms of the total number of living organisms.

Butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, various insects, spiders, and crabs are well-known arthropods.

The phylum is usually broken into the following five main classes:
Arachnida: - Spiders and Scorpions
Crustacea: - Crabs and Crayfish
Chilopoda: - Centipedes
Diplopoda: - Millipedes
Insecta: - Insects

There are several other "rare" classes in the arthropods that should be mentioned. A more formal list is as follows:

Sub Phylum Chelicerata
C. Arachnida: - Spiders and scorpions
C. Pycnogonida: - Sea spiders (500 species)
C. Merostomata: - Mostly fossil species

Sub Phylum Mandibulata
C. Crustacea: - Crabs and crayfish

Myriapod Group
C. Chilopoda: - Centipedes
C. Diplopoda: - Millipedes
C. Pauropoda: - Tiny millipede-like
C. Symphyla: - Garden centipedes

Insect Group
C. Insecta: - Insects

The above list does not include some extinct classes of Arthropods such as the Trilobites.