Meet the biggest – and most venomous – centipede in the world
The biggest centipede in the world is the aptly named Amazonian giant centipede, measuring up to an incredible foot long (30cm or 12 inches) or more.
The Amazonian giant centipede is made up of 27 segments, with 21 pairs of legs – the first pair of which delivers the deadly venom to its victims.
As it’s name suggests it lives in Amazon – but is also found in other parts of South America and the south Caribbean.
How venomous is the Amazonian giant centipede?
This centipede packs quite a punch. Armed with a powerful venom, the giant centipede preys on a variety of other animals, including other invertebrates and small vertebrates.
One study examined its predation on bats, suggesting that it could hang from a cave ceiling and inject its venom into a bat. Although the measured bat wasn’t quite twice its weight, it was a close thing – and this centipede has separately caused the death of a human child, and eaten flesh from a human corpse.
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Top image by Tod Baker from Tianjin, China, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons