280 days of Urbpandemonium #18

[urbpan]

I'm a rock-flipper from way back. My childhood was all about finding flat stones and dead logs and checking under to see who was home. My first concept of "centipede" was formed here: a quick orange beast with about 30-50 legs blasting away at the sight of light. Then there was this creature--the geophilomorph centipede.

Yes, it is still a centipede: more than 3 pairs of legs (many more) with one pair of legs per segment, and flattened in cross-section. But instead of darting away, these little guys crumple up--not coiling like a millipede but forming an untidy ball.


Left alone in the palm, they undo themselves and head off to find cover. At this point I'd like to mention that this is far and away the largest of this kind of centipede I've ever found. Usually these worm-like centipedes are a millimeter wide at most, stringing out to a couple centimeters in length.


This one might be 4 cm in length. There are geophilomorphs that are 4 times as long, somewhere out there. These relatively soft and slow predators feed on insect larvae and worms in the soil, compressing and extending their bodies like earthworms. Like all centipedes they use modified front legs as venomous fangs to subdue their prey.