Western yellow centipede
The western yellow centipede is a long, thin, yellow centipede that lives in the soil. It has lots and lots of legs, around 160 of them. It wriggles through the earth in woods, meadows and gardens, and even in compost heaps.
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Fun facts
It has between 77 and 83 pairs of legs.
It is quite big for a soil centipede and can grow longer than 7 centimetres.
In Norway it was found living in a compost heap in a botanical garden.
Scientists found that about 3 in every 10 of these centipedes have a body that grew a bit unusual.
Its scientific name has changed back and forth, and now it is called Haplophilus subterraneus again.
Most asked questions about Western yellow centipede
?How many legs does the western yellow centipede have?
It has 77 to 83 pairs of legs, so around 160 legs.
?Where can I find a western yellow centipede?
Look in gardens, compost heaps, woods and meadows in Europe, under the soil.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Stigmatogaster subterranea
- Group
- Centipedes and millipedes
- Family
- Himantariidae
- Classification
- Chilopoda > Geophilomorpha > Himantariidae
- Lives on
- Europe, North America
Where the facts come from
- Haplophilus subterraneus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by AJC1 from UK. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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