Brown centipede

This is a common centipede in my garden, often found when moving pots or under stones. It is Lithobius forficatus, and can be identified by its 15 pairs of legs and fast escape behaviour. There are no less than 17 sp UK species in the genus. L. forficatus, can be recognised by the projections on tergites 9, 11 and 13, its size (less than 30 mm, this one was about 19 mm) and the number of segments in their antennae (35-42, this one 37). I held this one in a plastic bug pot while keying it out. Lots of photos, in particular at the angle above, allowed to see the projections in the tergites (the plates on the back) clearly from the side. It had another short photographic session in the white bowl. White it didn't settle at all, as centipedes try and get under cover as soon as possible, good light conditions and a flash allowed me to take some sharp photos before returning it to its home.

Centipede under pot

It has been warm, if very windy today, but it was nice to be able to potter around in the garden after the long winter. While moving some pots I found this centipede, Cryptops hortensis. A thin, relatively small centipede, less than 3 cm in length, scurrying about trying to get back into soil.
Cryptops is the only UK representative of Scolopendromorpha, a order that includes very large species, often able to hunt small mammals, of warmer climates and that is characterized by their 21 pairs of legs. Cryptops is blind, very flexible and quite fast, and always willing to get under things. They are quite flattened and can manage to get into very small crevices, so it was quite an effort to make it crawl into the bug pot for photos. There are three British species, although only C. hortensis, the smallest of the three is widespread.

A leggy centipede

I was pleased to come across this centipede Stigmatogaster subterranea in leaf litter while gardening.  I counted 79 leg segments - with a pair of legs each -, a normal number for this species, which can easily be the leggiest beast in the garden. Winter has been very long this year: no bees or butterflies, or even droneflies, and very few active invertebrates around, so BugBlog remains dormant, but hopefully not for long.

Leaf sleepers

This is a good time of year to search for bugs in the leaf litter. On the top layer, ladybirds are set for the winter in the cosy, dry folds of the fresh fallen leaves. They usually cuddle up close to other ladybirds of the same species to overwinter, but it is not unusual to see two species together, like the 22 spot and 7 spot above. If you search a bit deeper on the soil, you can find centipedes, earthworms, and woodlice. With the colder temperatures, they are more torpid than usual, and then easier to photograph.

A shiny woodlouse, Oniscus asellus

Centipede, Lithobius forficatus

 A group of 22 spot ladybirds inside a vine leaf

Arion sp. slug

7 spot ladybird and birch shieldbug

Centipede on a walkabout

It is long, I counted 76 pairs of legs! My young daughter spotted this centipede, Stigmatogaster subterranea, walking on a stone wall out in the open. This is the first time I see this behaviour in this otherwise soil and leaf-litter living centipede. When disturbed, it had no trouble walking backwards, which had me puzzled for a bit, as I confused the tail and the head end!

The centipede lifted its head as if sniffing...

 ...and finally disappeared in the leaf litter.

The soil dwelling 'eightypedes'

When collecting some compost that had formed on the concrete under a large vine, I came across half a dozen subterranean centipedes. Despite having no eyes, they appear annoyed when exposed and try and hide under the soil as fast as they can, with their antenna moving very fast feeling the way. They are slower than the Lithobius, but their long snake-like bodies makes it quite tricky to get good shots, so I was quite pleased with the one above. This is Stigmatogaster subterranea (previously known as Haplophilus subterraneus), which usually has between 77 and 83 pairs of legs. I counted about 80 on a photo, a bit short of a hundred to deserve the name 'centipede' - which anyway, no centipede has, as they always have an odd number of pairs of legs - but still a respectable number. This species is blamed for nibbling roots of crops, and it feeds on vegetal and animal matter, but last year I witnessed a titanic struggle of a grub of some sort with an specimen of this centipede just at ground level. You would wonder how on earth did I happen to notice this, and the reason is that I had just seen a queen bumblebee digging into the soil and I wondered if she was going to make a nest and waited patiently watching until the two struggling pair of bugs nearby on the ground catched my attention. The fight carried on for some time but, unfortunately, I do not know how it ended. It just seemed too large a prey for the centipede. The grub moved its body around and the centipede curled around it, and, as you can see in the photos, tried to bite with its fangs. From the photo it appears that either the skin of the grub was too tough or the bite too wide for the fangs to pierce it - and therefore to inject the venom. In any case, it is quite unusual to come across some subterranean bug actually behaving, as opposed to simply disturbing it.

The centipede curling around its catch.

In this photo you can see the darker fangs opened under the centipede head, trying to pierce the grub.

Another shot with fangs.

The stone dwellers

When repotting a Rosemary I disturbed this Brown Centipede (Lithobius forficatus) which had taken residence at the bottom of the pot. It obviously was taken aback and sat still on the ground for a few moments so I went to grab the camera. Centipedes lose moisture from their bodies quite fast, as they lack an impermeable layer in their integument, so they live in moist environments and are most active at night. For this reason, when exposed from their hiding places under stones, logs (or pots!) Brown Centipedes tend to run away from the light as fast as they can and scuttle under the nearest dark crevice. These common centipedes are carnivorous or detritivorous, feeding on springtails, aphids, flies, spiders, mites, millipedes and molluscs which they immobilise with a venom they inject through fang-like apendages located at the sides of their head.

A close up of the Brown Centipede showing its fattened head with eyes made of a cluster of simple eyes (ocelli), the side of their fangs under its head and their long mobile antenna.

I found this cluster of eggs under a pot last May and a Lithobius next to them. Unfortunately, the little information on eggs I found describes that they lay eggs singly and bury them. I counted 42 eggs here.

Although quick, the Brown centipede is a small animal, up to 3 cm in length, and due to its habits, hard to watch. In contrast the longest centipede can reach over 30 cm. Watch a video of this giant centipede, Scolopendra gigantea, moulting and searching for prey in this post of The Bug Whisperer.