Centipede

If you remember a month ago, I mentioned how we were trying to identify and photograph all the plants and animals that live on a spoil heap. Take a look at this beast! It is a Common Centipede (Lithobius forficatus). Now this little chap lives under rocks and fallen logs. We found him under a large plank of wood alongside several other centipedes, a few groundbeetles a large house spider and some woodlice. When disturbed, these animals will leg it as fast as they can to anywhere dark. In the daytime they hide from the sun and the unwanted attention of predators. At night time however, they become one of the fiercest predators in the garden. Taking on animals ten times their size with deadly poison fangs. Apparently this species delivers a bite like a bad bee sting. I'm glad I kept my fingers away. This fact alongside how ridiculously fast this creature is made me a bit scared to use the bigascope. But with trembling hands and beads of Chilopoda fearing sweat dripping off my nose, I managed to get these images.

Here is a bigascope close up of the little chap's fangs. I had to take this one through the bottom of the Petri dish that I had him in. So there was a degree of safety for me.

This one could have gone wrong at any time though. With the bigascope in the way, I couldn't see him and if I got too close and touched him I would have an angry centipede on my hands. Literally!

Take a look at this video. It shows how the centipede is a master of movement. The centipede is one of those super ancient life forms that appeared 420 million years ago in the late Silurian period. In fact it was the first land predator. They ruled the Earth for 100 million years before even the spider came along. Though it is the most primeval of species it is welcome in the garden because it eats slugs and other pests. Strangely they can cohabit with spiders much bigger than themselves without either species thinking of eating each other. Now that is team work.