The Centipede and photographic trickery.

The Centipede and photographic trickery. Both Millipedes and Centipedes have lots of legs, but actually there are many differences between the two the centipede can have a nasty bite, so don't mix them up! Both centipedes and millipedes belong to the subgroup of multi-legged creatures called myriapods.

The creature below is a centipede. They have a really nasty "bite" that really, really hurts.

Within the myriapods, the centipedes belong to their own class, called chilopods. There are c.8,000 species worldwide.

The class name originates from the Greek cheilos, meaning "lip," and poda, meaning "foot." The word "centipede" comes from the Latin prefix centi-, meaning "hundred," and pedis, meaning "foot." Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs, and no species has only 100 legs like the name suggests.

Our Hong Kong Centipede, the Scolopendra which is pictured above, is the largest and locally the most dangerous centipede. Interestingly, this genus is characterised by 21 pairs of legs (ie 42 and not 100). The last pair of "legs" as shown on the far left of the photo are not used for locomotion but is a sensorial organ.

phototrickery is not new.... now its more about photoshop and AI, but even here in this photo i found from the vietnam war....the centipede is actually dangling from a fishing line much closer to the camera than the soldier who is not actually holding it. It appears to be a monster size, but of course we know better...er, don't we?