How Many Legs Does a Millipede Have? Not Quite a Thousand

How many legs do most millipedes have?

The name millipede comes from the Latin for “thousand feet”, but that is an exaggeration. Most common species have roughly 34 to 400 legs. A typical millipede found in a European or North American garden has somewhere around 60 to 200.

The numbers vary even within a species, because individuals can differ in how many segments they have. That is why sources often give a range or an approximate figure rather than one exact count.

Why do millipedes have two pairs of legs per segment?

The scientific name of millipedes, Diplopoda, means “double feet”. Most of their body rings are so-called diplosegments: each one forms when two embryonic segments fuse, and it keeps the legs of both, giving two pairs per ring.

The front of the body follows a fixed pattern. The first ring behind the head, called the collum, has no legs. The second, third and fourth rings carry one pair each. From the fifth ring backward, most rings carry two pairs, and the last ring or few rings at the tail end have none.

In males of most species, one or two pairs of legs on the seventh ring are modified into gonopods, special structures used to transfer sperm during mating. These no longer work as walking legs, although they are still counted by many scientists when giving leg totals.

Each leg has seven segments and is short compared with a centipede’s. Many short legs pushing together give millipedes strength rather than speed, ideal for bulldozing through soil and leaf litter.

Do millipedes grow more legs as they get older?

Yes. Millipedes hatch from the egg with only three pairs of legs and a handful of body rings. Each time they molt, they add new rings and new legs at the rear of the body. This way of growing is called anamorphosis.

In many species growth stops at a fixed number of segments once the animal is mature. In others, adults keep molting and adding segments, so older individuals can have noticeably more legs than younger adults of the same species. This is one reason why leg counts for large species, such as the giant African millipede, are given as approximate numbers.

Which millipede has the most legs?

The record holder is Eumillipes persephone, described in 2021 by a team led by the American millipede specialist Paul Marek. It was found in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region by biologist Bruno Buzatto, who lowered traps baited with damp leaf litter into boreholes drilled for mineral exploration. Some specimens came from 60 m (about 200 ft) below the surface.

The animal is pale cream, eyeless and extremely thin, only about 1 mm (0.04 in) wide but up to about 9.6 cm (3.8 in) long. A female collected in August 2020 had 330 segments and 1,306 legs, more than any other animal known. Its genus name, Eumillipes, means “true thousand feet”, and the species name refers to Persephone, the Greek queen of the underworld.

Before this discovery, the record belonged to Illacme plenipes, a tiny millipede from central California with up to 750 legs. First found in 1926, it was not seen again until 2005, when Paul Marek, then a student, rediscovered it. Both species evolved long, thin bodies with many legs independently, probably as an adaptation for pushing through narrow cracks deep in the soil.

Do centipedes have more legs than millipedes?

Usually not. Centipedes have only one pair of legs per body segment, while most millipede segments carry two. Centipede species range from 15 to 191 pairs, or 30 to 382 legs, and curiously the number of pairs is always odd, so no centipede has exactly 100 legs.

The leg arrangement also explains how the two move. Centipede legs are long and stick out to the sides, suited to fast running after prey. Millipede legs sit under the body and move in waves, pushing the animal steadily forward. For more differences, from diet to danger, see centipede vs millipede and How many legs does a centipede have?.

Myths and facts about millipede legs

Myth: “millipede” means the animal has a thousand legs. It is just a name. For more than 250 years after scientists began classifying millipedes, no species with 1,000 legs was known.

Myth: a millipede’s legs are all the same. Most legs look alike, but males of many species have special legs, the gonopods, used only for mating. Their shape differs so much between species that scientists use them as the main way to tell millipede species apart.

Fact: more legs does not mean more speed. Millipedes are slow, rarely moving faster than a steady crawl. Their many legs give them pushing power, letting even large species like the giant African millipede shove their way through soil and rotting wood.