WhatFinger


July gardening: Both the names ‘centipede’ and ‘millipede’ are misleading. Neither have either a hundred or a thousand legs

A Thousand Footfalls Go Unheard



We have it on no less an authority than Cole Porter that not only do ‘the dragonflies, in the reeds do it, ‘but so do ‘sentimental centipedes do it’ – fall in love, that it.
Unfortunately centipedes, along with their arthropodal cousins the millipedes, have garnered little in gardening or scientific attention. Presumably, Cole Porter is correct since there are plenty of both although comparatively few classified. There are an estimated 8,000 species of centipedes of which some 3,000 described; the numbers of millipedes are even more impressive with 12,000 known species out of an estimated 80,000. And both are to be found almost everywhere, our gardens included. Millipedes, dark in colour and coiling like a watch spring when disturbed, can play merry hell with seedlings although normally they feed on the detritus of vegetation. Centipedes, usually light to dark brown in temperate area gardens, are active predators. They prey on bugs and other pests by stinging them with venom secreted from the first pair of pincer-like legs, called forcipules, noted a recent report from Science Daily. Thus, they should be welcomed in the garden. Roald Dahl was incorrect to have his centipede announce, “I am a pest,” in James and the Giant Peach (1961).

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Both the names ‘centipede’ and ‘millipede’ are misleading. Neither have either a hundred or a thousand legs. Centipedes have one pair of legs per body segment, of which there are always an odd number. So while the may have anywhere from 15 or more pairs of legs then can never have exactly 100 legs. Scurrying hither and thither, centipedes never trip one leg over the one in front. Each leg is very slightly longer than the one in front of it, an observation that seems to have escaped Victorian observers, for Mrs. Edmund Craster, who died in 1874, penned:
The Centipede was happy quite, Until the Toad in Fun Said, 'Pray which leg goes before which?' And worked her mind into such a pitch, She lay distracted in the ditch Considering how to run
What happens when a centipede loses a leg or two? Frankly, we don’t know. The immortal Goon Show was ever ready to help out though. In one episode, it was suggested, “Here, swallow this tin of Leggo, the wonder leg-grower recommended by all good centipedes.” Such remains unconfirmed by any scientific studies. The centipede species of northern gardens are only a few millimetres long. Tropical species, however, can attain considerably larger lengths, which makes them the largest terrestrial arthropod predators. The Amazonian giant centipede, Scolopendra gigantea, may be over 30cm long. It is known to eat lizards, frogs, birds, mice and even bats, catching the latter in midflight. The venom of these larger species may cause some pain but are not fatal. Smaller millipedes are also probably harmless, although again tropical giant species should be avoided. While these do not sting or bite, they have irritating secretions that can cause pain, itching and blistering. One such, the giant African millipede, Archispirostreptus gigas, is the longest known at some 34 centimetres and as thick as a man’s thumb. It makes an unpleasant crunching sound when stepped upon. All millipedes have two pairs of legs to each body segment of which there may be as few as 11 to over 100. Actual legs usually number from three-dozen to as many as 400, although one unusual species may sport up to 750. So unfortunately another legend falls by the wayside, although a cute tale is told of a female millipede who cried, “No, no, a thousand times no!” and crossed her legs. Millipedes, however, are believed to have been the first animals to walk on dry land. Diplodologists – scientists who study millipedes – tell that the centimetre-long Pbeumodesmus newmani lived 428 million years ago. It probably fed on primitive plants related to modern ferns and club mosses, which resulted in the oldest known piles of poop, left behind in rocks of Wales. Identified by Dianne Edwards of the University of Wales, Cardiff, and her colleagues in Nature, the 412 million-year-old coprolites are packed with the spores of the plants it feasted upon. Even more remarkable was Arthropleura living in Upper Carboniferous, 340-280 million years ago. It holds the record as the largest known land invertebrates of all time, reaching an impressive length of up to 2.6 metres. Not something you would like to discover wending its way around your basement floor.


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Wes Porter -- Bio and Archives

Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.


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