General: Centipedes are arthropods with a hard exoskeleton. They are segmented, flattened, worm-like creatures with one pair of legs per body segment. All centipedes have a pair of venom claws formed from the first appendage. Centipedes have 15 or 21 pairs of legs (the first are hard to see because they are modified as pinchers).

Feeding: Centipedes are strictly predators, feeding on most anything they can catch.

Taxonomy: Subphylum Myriapoda, Class Chilopoda, with five orders.

Note: Centipedes use venom to subdue their prey, and they can deliver a nasty bite to humans.

Compare with the slower moving, herbivorous millipedes that have two pairs of legs per segment.