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Sticker of Australian house centipede
Bug card No. 0079 of 1,500

Australian house centipede

Allothereua maculata
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsCentipedes and millipedesHouses and farmsLots of legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The Australian house centipede is a pale brown centipede with dark markings and very long, thin legs. It has long feelers at the front and just as long feelers at the back. That makes it tricky to tell which end is its head.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect. Insects have six legs, and this cousin has many, many more.
Lives in
Southern Australia, from Western Australia to Queensland, in woodland and houses
Length
2 to 2.5 cm (0.79 to 0.98 in)
Top speed
about 1.4 km/h (0.87 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It hunts insects and other small creepy crawlies.
For real!Photo of Australian house centipede
Picture by Probable_Allothereua_maculata.jpg : Chris Bloke derivative work: Stemonitis ( talk ). CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Australian house centipede about 2.5 cm long (0.98 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowit has about 30 legscould run across a dinner table in 2.6 seconds

How big is Australian house centipede compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its body has 15 segments, with one pair of legs on each, so it has 30 legs.

2

It is the most common centipede of its kind in southern Australia.

3

In houses it likes damp, stuffy rooms that do not get much fresh air.

4

Its body is covered in lots of tiny hairs.

you asked

Most asked questions about Australian house centipede

?How many legs does it have?

It has 15 pairs of long legs, which makes 30.

?How big is the Australian house centipede?

Its body is about 2 to 2.5 centimetres long, without the legs.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Allothereua maculata
Group
Centipedes and millipedes
Family
Scutigeridae
Classification
Chilopoda > Scutigeromorpha > Scutigeridae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
House centipede

Where the facts come from

  1. Allothereua maculata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Probable_Allothereua_maculata.jpg : Chris Bloke derivative work: Stemonitis ( talk ). CC BY 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Centipedes and millipedes

Also at home here: Houses and farms