Differentiating Millipedes and Centipedes
I had posted pictures of millipedes in this post earlier, and some friends commented that they looked like centipedes. How would you differentiate them then? I have compiled a summary of what I know...
#1 Melvyn found this pair of mating millipedes. The female was heavily infested with mites!
#2 Some people thought that these were centipedes. The easiest way to tell them apart, is that millipedes would have 2 pairs of legs per body segment (except first 3 segments), while centipedes have 1 pair per body segment.
#2b An old shot of a centipede highlighting the long antennae and venomous fangs
#3 James found this Theridiid with THREE termites for supper!
#4 This angle shows the 3 pointed heads of the termites
#5 Messing up the leaf litter and found this tiny spider (Theridiidae or Oonopidae?)
#6 Zodariidae
#7 Sac Spider (Clubionidae)
#8 Sometimes, I mistook them for Sparassids
#9 Top view
#10 Daddy Long Legs spider (Pholcidae) carrying her eggs and peering through a hole in a leaf
#11 Too difficult to shoot from under the leaf, so I just took all my shots through the hole
#12 Experimental back-lighting
#13 Preferred this, as it highlights the translucent legs
#14 A harvestman running around in the leaf litter
#15 Crab spider? (Thomisidae)
#16 Found this pair of male and female Wide Jawed Viciria (Viciria praemandibularis)
#17 Looks like a spider protecting her egg sac of freshly emerged spiderlings (nearby) with one of them returning to mummy
#18 Fidgeted around, but stuck to the egg sac
#19 Looks like not all spiderlings have emerged
#20 A tiny cranefly (?) got stuck in the web, and some spiderlings promptly charged over
#21 Crawled all over the prey as the cranefly slowly ceased to struggle
#22 Perhaps the spiderling did inject venom into the prey
#23 Two spiderlings climbing around
#24 Fulgoridae, lantern bug's relative?
#25 Top view of the Fulgorid
#26 A fat looking Black-spotted Sticky Frog (Kalophrynus pleurostigma)
#27 This angle doesn't make it look too fat. :P
#28 Front view makes it look a little like the Malayan Horned Frog
#29 Two-tailed Spider (Hersiliidae) with a prey
#30 Last find of the night is this Black-eyed Litter Frog (Leptobrachium nigrops)
#31 The hind legs had a slight tinge of blue
#32 Looking really grumpy
#33 Very docile and stood quietly
#34 Final shot as it climbed further in preparation to leap!
The complete album can be viewed here.
Characteristic | Millipede | Centipede |
Antennae | Short | Long |
Number of Legs | 2 pairs per body segment, except first 3 segments with 1 pair each | 1 pair per body segment |
Movement Speed | Slow | BLOODY FAST (oops) |
Bite? | Scavengers, do not bite | Predators, has modified venomous legs behind the head |
The complete album can be viewed here.
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