Bug card No. 0194 of 1,500
Brown centipede
Lithobius forficatus
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsCentipedes and millipedesGardens and meadowsLots of legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin
The brown centipede is a shiny chestnut brown creature with lots of legs. You find it when you lift up a stone or an old log in the garden. As soon as the light hits it, it zooms away super fast to hide.
Fun fact: this one is not an insect. Insects have six legs, and this cousin has many, many more.
Lives in
Europe and North America, and also Hawaii, under stones and rotting logs
Length
1.8 to 3 cm (0.71 to 1.2 in)
What does it eat?
It hunts insects, spiders, slugs, worms and flies.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 5 grains of rice in a row🦶it has about 30 legs🍽️could run across a dinner table in 2.4 seconds
How big is Brown centipede compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Brown centipede about 1.5 km/h (0.93 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
A grown-up has 15 pairs of legs, that is 30 legs.
2
When it hatches it has only seven pairs of legs and gets more every time it sheds its skin.
3
It can live for five or six years, a long time for such a small animal.
you asked
Most asked questions about Brown centipede
?How many legs does a brown centipede have?
A grown-up has 15 pairs, so 30 legs.
?What does a brown centipede eat?
Small animals like insects, spiders, slugs, worms and flies.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lithobius forficatus
- Group
- Centipedes and millipedes
- Family
- Lithobiidae
- Classification
- Chilopoda > Lithobiomorpha > Lithobiidae
- Lives on
- Europe, North America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Garden centipede, Stone centipede
Where the facts come from
- Lithobius forficatus (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 (c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0, 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.
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