Joe Wagner, age l0, of Lakewood, Ohio, for his question:
Does any insect have more legs than a centipede?
A centipede may have l00 legs arranged in two neat rows, one on each side of his wormy body. The little fellow uses all his legs for walking, and when seen from above he looks somewhat like a column of soldiers on the march. And the little fellow progresses without treading on his own toes.
The name centipede means l00 legs arid the name millepede means l,000 legs but none of the world's millepedes have l,000 legs. There are centipedes that have l00 legs and a few of them have more than l00. It may be safe to say that a centipede has more legs than any other animal on earth. It most certainly is safe to say that he has more legs than any of the world's insects.
An animal must have some very definite features to qualify as an insect. He must have a body in three well marked sections, a head and a chest or thorax and an abdomen and fixed to his thorax there must be three pairs of legs. every adult insect must have six legs some insects go through a caterpillar stage during their life cycles. Caterpillars crawl along on two rows of what look like tiny feet. However, they cannot be rated as true feet and legs. The bins of his grown up legs are there but when he becomes an adult he has only six true legs.
Centipedes and millipedes do not qualify as insects. They are arthropods or animals with jointed feet and with the insects they belong in the vast phylum called Arthropoda. The insects belong in an arthropod class of there own, centipedes and millipedes belong in different groups of the same phylum.
Centipedes and millipedes have segmented bodies that seem to be assembled from a row of rings. A millipede has two pairs of legs growing from each segment of his body, and he may have 30, 50 or even 70 segments. A Centipede has more segments, but each segment sprouts only one pair of legs. Many centipedes. who are supposed to have l00 legs have more legs than the millipedes, who are supposed to have l,000 legs. And all of them have more legs by far than a six legged insect.
Some of the feet of the Centipede bear tiny poisonous claws. These are used to stun living prey. If you let a Centipede crawl over your hand he may leave behind a scratchy trail. Larger centipedes of the tropics can make little poisoned wounds on human skin.
The 200 different centipedes that make their homes in North America: may be regarded as friends rather than dangerous enemies. They are meat eaters who dine regularly on flits and cockroaches, mosquitos and other pesky creatures. True, no good housekeeper permits them to occupy the bathroom, Cellar or other dim, moist corner but Centipedes do help to keep down the household insect population.