Do Centipedes Really Have 100 Legs?
The word cent comes from a Latin word that means “one hundred,” so you might think that the many-legged creature called the centipede has 100 legs. But it’s only a rare centipede that has exactly 100 legs. All centipedes have one pair of legs for each body segment; so if a centipede has 20 body segments, it will have 40 legs. Mo
Well, their name means “hundred-footers.” But there are many kinds of centipedes, and most have a lot fewer than 100 legs–around 30 or so. Some have more than 300, though! What about millipedes? Their name means “thousand-footers.” No millipede has 1,000 legs, but at least one kind has as many as 750. That’s pretty close! The names might not be perfect, but they’re good enough. The main thing is, these creatures have a bunch of legs. And most millipedes have more than most centipedes. How do you tell the difference between the two? Millipedes have two pairs of legs for each body section. Centipedes have only one pair per section. Either way, it makes for too many shoes to tie.
