How Big Do Centipedes Get? Giant Centipedes That Hunt Bats

The biggest centipede: the Amazonian giant centipede

Scolopendra gigantea, also called the Peruvian giant yellow-leg centipede, is the largest known centipede species. Adults are usually quoted at about 26–30 cm (10–12 in), and the very largest reported specimens slightly exceed 30 cm (12 in). Its body is reddish brown to almost black, with contrasting yellowish legs, and it has 21 or 23 pairs of legs.

Despite the common name, confirmed records come mainly from northern South America and the southern Caribbean: Venezuela, Colombia, Trinidad, Aruba, Curaçao and parts of Brazil. It lives in tropical rainforest and dry forest, hiding by day in leaf litter, under rocks and logs and beneath tree bark. Near houses it also shelters in rubble, plant pots and crevices in walls.

The Amazonian giant centipede will eat almost any animal it can overpower. Recorded prey includes large insects, spiders and tarantulas, scorpions, snails, millipedes, lizards, frogs up to about 9.5 cm (3.7 in), snakes up to about 25 cm (10 in), small birds, mice and bats.

How does a giant centipede catch bats?

The most famous evidence comes from a cave in northern Venezuela, where researchers published a study in 2005 describing Amazonian giant centipedes preying on three species of bats. The centipedes climbed the cave walls and ceiling, then hung on with only a few legs while the rest of the body was free to grab bats.

Some of the bats they caught were heavier than the centipedes themselves. The centipede seized its prey with its venom claws and kept hold of it while still anchored to the rock. The venom is strong enough to quickly immobilize small mammals such as mice and bats.

Catching flying vertebrates in this way is extraordinary for an invertebrate. It shows how a large centipede combines climbing ability, a long reach and fast-acting venom.

Other giant centipedes around the world

All of the largest centipedes belong to the family Scolopendridae, the tropical and subtropical centipedes. The table gives the commonly cited lengths of some well-known giants.

The Galápagos centipede has been reported eating crickets, young rodents including the Galápagos rice rat, and in one case a snake. Scolopendra subspinipes, sometimes called the Vietnamese or Hawaiian centipede, is one of the most widespread giant species, partly because people have carried it around the tropics.

Well-fed captive centipedes sometimes grow longer than wild ones, and online claims of far bigger animals are usually exaggerated or unmeasured.

How big are centipedes in North America?

The giant desert centipede (Scolopendra heros) is the largest centipede in North America, averaging about 17 cm (6.5 in) and reaching about 20 cm (8 in) in the wild. It is found from Arizona and New Mexico east to Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana, and in northern Mexico. A related species, the common desert centipede (Scolopendra polymorpha), reaches about 10–18 cm (4–7 in) in the Southwest.

Most North Americans meet far smaller centipedes:

• The house centipede has a body only 25–35 mm (1–1.4 in) long, though its long legs make it look about 75–100 mm (3–4 in).
• The brown or stone centipede (Lithobius forficatus), found in gardens in Europe and North America, is 18–30 mm (0.7–1.2 in) long.
• Thin soil centipedes, which burrow like worms, are mostly a few centimeters long.

How big are centipedes in Europe?

The bulkiest European centipede is the Mediterranean banded centipede, a black-and-yellow banded Scolopendra of southern Europe. It is usually about 10–15 cm (4–6 in) long, with large individuals a little longer.

One of Europe’s longest centipedes is very different. Himantarium gabrielis, a Mediterranean soil centipede, can reach about 20 cm (8 in) but is very slender and has up to 179 pairs of short legs.

In northern and central Europe, including Britain, most centipedes are small. The brown centipede is 18–30 mm (0.7–1.2 in) long, and the western yellow centipede (Haplophilus subterraneus), a common garden soil centipede, reaches about 70 mm (2.8 in). The house centipede is common in southern Europe and turns up in buildings further north.

How small can centipedes be?

At the other extreme, the smallest centipedes measure only a few millimeters. Many tiny stone centipedes and soil centipedes live unseen in leaf litter and soil, where they hunt springtails, mites and insect larvae.

That means adult centipedes range in length roughly a hundredfold, from a few millimeters to about 30 cm (12 in). The giants are all found in warm tropical and subtropical regions, and none of them lives in northern Europe or Canada.

Are giant centipedes bigger than millipedes?

Not quite. The largest living millipede, the giant African millipede, has been measured at about 33.5 cm (13.2 in), slightly longer than the largest centipede. Millipedes are slow plant eaters, however, while giant centipedes are fast, venomous hunters.

The largest myriapod ever was Arthropleura, an extinct millipede relative from about 300 million years ago that grew to more than 2 m (6.5 ft). No fossil centipede comes anywhere close to that size.

Are giant centipedes dangerous to people?

Giant centipedes can deliver a very painful bite with swelling, and occasionally symptoms such as fever and weakness. The giant desert centipede has no confirmed human deaths. Deaths from any centipede are extremely rare, and the very few reported cases involved large tropical species and mostly young children. How the bites of small household centipedes compare is covered in Are house centipedes dangerous?.

The safe approach is simply to leave large centipedes alone and never handle them. If anyone has a severe reaction to a bite, seek emergency medical help immediately (911 in the US, 112 in the EU, 999 in the UK).