CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Are centipedes insects?

Are centipedes insects?

Centipedes are not insects. Centipedes are terrestrial arthropods, and their bodies are composed of many segments, each of which has legs, so they are multi-legged creatures. Centipedes are also known as dragons and centipedes. They are venomous, predatory terrestrial arthropods. Common centipedes include red-headed, green-headed, and black-headed. The red-headed centipede has a reddish-black back, a light red abdomen, and light orange-red or yellow legs. The green-headed centipede has a blue back and legs, a light blue abdomen, and is small in size, about half the length of a red-headed centipede.

Centipedes are not insects. Centipedes are terrestrial arthropods, and their bodies are composed of many segments, each of which has legs, so they are multi-legged creatures. Centipedes are also known as dragons and centipedes. They are venomous, predatory terrestrial arthropods. Common centipedes include red-headed, green-headed, and black-headed. The red-headed centipede has a reddish-black back, a light red abdomen, and light orange-red or yellow legs. The green-headed centipede has a blue back and legs, a light blue abdomen, and is small in size, about half the length of a red-headed centipede.

Is a centipede an insect?

Centipedes are not insects.

Animal Profile:

Centipede is an arthropod. The body structure of centipede is very unique. The body is composed of individual arthropods. Each segment has a pair of legs, one on each side. Therefore, it is also called multi-legged creature, white-footed insect, etc. Centipede is a poisonous animal and does not belong to the insect class. Insects have their own characteristics. Insects are an animal of the class Insecta. They are arthropods of invertebrates in the animal kingdom. They are the largest group of organisms in terms of species and number. The basic characteristics of insects are that they have three body segments and the skeleton is wrapped outside the body. Centipedes do not have these characteristics. Centipedes have characteristics that insects do not have, so centipedes are not insects.

Centipedes are poisonous animals that may secrete venom when touched. Therefore, if you are bitten by a centipede, the centipede's venom glands will secrete a large amount of venom, and you may be poisoned after being bitten. Although the venom is not strong, it will cause pain, but it is generally not fatal. If you have any adverse symptoms, it is best to go to the hospital for a check-up and disinfect if necessary.

Distribution:

Centipedes have a wide distribution range, and are mainly distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, etc. Centipedes generally like to live in dark, warm, rain-proof, well-ventilated places, and often lurk in the gaps between bricks and stones, at the foot of the wall, and in dark corners of piles of leaves, weeds, and rotten wood.

Animal diet:

Centipedes are carnivorous animals that like to eat various insects, such as locusts, dragonflies, grasshoppers, crickets, various flies, bees, etc. In addition, they will attack animals that are much larger than their bodies, such as frogs, mice, birds, lizards and snakes.

Machine Description:

Digestive system The centipede's digestive system consists of the digestive tract and digestive glands. Food enters the digestive tract from the mouth and undergoes mechanical and chemical decomposition processes before it can be absorbed and used by the centipede. The digestive tract is simple, a straight tube running through the center of the body from the mouth to the anus. Behind the mouth is a swollen pharynx, whose contraction facilitates sucking food. The digestive tract behind the pharynx consists of three parts: the foregut, midgut, and hindgut. The foregut and hindgut are both very short, but the midgut is very long. The foregut mainly plays the role of receiving, transporting, and initially digesting food. The midgut is the main place for food digestion and absorption, and the hindgut is responsible for forming feces and transporting it to the anus of the tail segment for excretion. The digestive glands are a pair of grape-shaped salivary glands that open into the foregut through the salivary duct. The salivary glands can secrete saliva containing digestive enzymes, which can moisten and initially decompose food.

Respiratory system:

Centipedes breathe through the trachea system. The trachea is an elastic tubular structure formed by the invagination of the body wall. The wall has chitinous spiral filaments that support the trachea to facilitate gas circulation. The trachea has many branches, distributed between the cells and tissues of the body wall. The trachea has openings on both sides of the body that communicate with the outside - the spiracles. They are the pits left when the trachea was formed. Centipedes have a total of 6 pairs of spiracles, located in the 4th, 6th, 9th, 13th and 16th segments. The other segments have degenerated, leaving only a few traces. Each valve has an opening device that allows the valve to be opened and closed. When it is open, gas can enter and exit unimpeded. When it is closed, it can prevent the evaporation of water in the body and the invasion of foreign objects.

Circulatory system:

The centipede's circulatory system is an open-tube circulation, but it is relatively developed. The tubular heart is located on the dorsal side of the digestive tract, runs through the trunk, and is surrounded by the pericardium. It enters the head artery from the back to the front and leads to various organs in the head. In addition to the forward dorsal blood vessels, there is also a pair of lateral arteries that surround the digestive tract and merge into the supraneurial blood vessels on the ventral side of the digestive tract. These blood vessels have branches that enter the blood cavity. In addition, except for the last few segments, the centipede has a pair of heart holes in each segment, which are openings for blood to enter the heart from the blood sinus.

Excretory system:

The excretory trachea of ​​centipedes is the Malpighian tubule. It is an unbranched blind tube located at the junction of the mid-gut and hind-gut. The blind end of the Malpighian tubule is free in the blood cavity and absorbs waste products produced by metabolism from the blood and sends it to the hind-gut. After the hind-gut reabsorbs water, it is excreted from the body through the anus along with feces.

Nervous system:

The centipede's nervous system is similar to that of an earthworm, belonging to a chain-like nervous system. It includes a cerebral ganglion, from which nerves are distributed to the antennae and eyes, and two nerves connected to the subesophageal ganglion, which has nerves connected to the mandibles, two pairs of maxillae, and maxillopedis. After that, there are two posterior abdominal nerve cords and a pair of ganglia in each segment. As the body segments heal, the ganglia also heal, and each pair of ganglia sends nerves to each body segment to regulate the body's activities.

Reproductive system:

Centipedes are dioecious. The reproductive glands of centipedes' reproductive system are all on the back of the digestive tract. They are single ovaries or testes. They consist of a reproductive tube, the oviduct or vas deferens, which later splits into two, goes around the digestive tract and opens at the male and female genital openings. In addition, there are two pairs of accessory glands connected to the end of the reproductive tube. Female centipedes have two spermatophores, and male centipedes have two spermatophores, which all lead to the ends of the oviduct and vas deferens. Female centipedes fill the body cavity when the eggs mature. Before giving birth, the mother stores sperm in the spermatophore so that the fully developed eggs can combine with sperm during ovulation to become fertilized eggs and be discharged.

Living habits:

When the weather turns cold in October, centipedes usually burrow into the soil of the leeward and sunny hillsides, hibernating in the soil about 12 cm from the ground until the next year after the Waking of Insects (early March), and then start to move around and look for food as the weather warms up. Centipedes have a strong ability to drill into cracks. They often use their sensitive antennae and flat head plates to test the cracks. They can pass through or live in most cracks in rocks and land. When the density is too high or there are too many disturbances, they may fight each other and die. However, under artificial breeding conditions, if there is enough bait and drinking water, dozens of centipedes can live together. Centipedes are typical carnivorous animals, ferocious in nature, with a wide range of food, especially insects. When food is scarce in early spring, they can also eat a small amount of grass and young shoots of moss.

Sexing:

Centipedes are dioecious animals. Sex identification is of great significance for the reasonable breeding of male and female centipedes, reducing the cost of breeding male centipedes, and improving the reproduction rate. The sex identification of centipedes is relatively complicated, and it requires a comprehensive analysis of the head, body shape, physique, etc. to determine. The head is flat and large, the rear edge of the 21st dorsal plate is relatively flat and round, the body is large and wide, the abdomen is thick, the physique is soft, and there is no exposed reproductive limbs in the tail reproductive area when squeezed by hand. It is a female; the head is oval, the rear edge of the 21st dorsal plate is slightly raised and pointed, the body is small and narrow, the abdomen is thin, the physique is hard, and there is a pair of degenerate reproductive limbs in the tail reproductive area.

Growth and reproduction:

Centipedes are ovoviviparous and reproduce quickly. They usually mate between June, July and August. Under normal circumstances, it takes four months from mating to egg-laying. When laying eggs, the female centipede digs a small pit in the soil. The mother body is curved in an S shape, and the tail segment at the back is placed on the back of the middle part of the body due to the bending of the body. The egg material discharged from the genital pore accumulates on the back and sticks together to form a ball. The centipede then turns over to embrace the egg ball. There are usually about 60 to 70 eggs in a ball, and as few as 20 to 30 eggs. After about 20 days, the centipede eggs will shed their egg membranes and fetal skins. The hatched centipede larvae are milky white. The female centipede still holds the larvae tightly between her feet. The larvae rarely move. After 25 to 30 days, the larvae undergo a second molt. Their body shape is similar to that of the adult, and their body color is still milky white. The middle part of the body is slightly fat. After 35 to 42 days, they undergo a second molt. Their body color is grayish yellow and their activity is enhanced. They no longer hold tightly together, but are loosely concentrated on the mother's ventral surface. At this time, the larvae can be separated from the mother, and the mother can be placed in a large group for mating. The centipedes are fully fed after giving birth, and the young centipedes are given small feeds. (It can also be produced individually, with soil in a wide-mouth canning bottle, and the female centipede is placed in it).

Enhanced feeding:

During the incubation period, centipedes do not eat or drink water, and rely on consuming their own nutrients to maintain their activities. Before laying eggs, the mother has the habit of eating a lot to accumulate nutrients. At this time, the feeding amount should be increased, and attention should be paid to adjusting the food variety to encourage the mother to eat more and increase nutrition before hatching. After the hatching is over, although the young centipedes temporarily live in groups, they can also move and forage alone. At this time, the mother will gradually leave the hatching nest and move alone. Because centipedes have the habit of competing for food, the strong bully the weak, and the big bully the small, so the large and small centipedes should be separated in time.

Watch out for injuries:

Small centipede bites only cause local redness, swelling and pain. Tropical large centipede bites can cause lymphangitis and tissue necrosis, and sometimes purpura of the entire limb. Some people may experience headaches, fever, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and even systemic symptoms such as slurred speech, convulsions, and coma. If you are bitten on your hand by a red-headed, black-bodied, yellow-legged centipede in the Yangtze River Basin (usually at this location), you will quickly experience severe pain at the bite site (it will still be very painful if you treat the wound in time), usually within 2 hours at the elbow joint, 3 hours at the armpit, and 4-5 hours at the chest. But don't worry, it usually won't lead to fatal danger. The symptoms will gradually disappear after 4 days.

Emergency treatment:

After being bitten by a centipede, wash the wound with soapy water immediately, apply cold and wet compress to the wound locally, or apply houttuynia cordata or dandelion. If you have systemic symptoms, go to the hospital immediately. Scorpions are arachnids. When scorpions sting people, the venom glands secrete venom into the human body, which quickly causes a series of poisoning reactions. Emergency treatment with Chinese herbal plant extracts: Tighten the wound 2 to 3 cm above the upper end with a cloth belt, and relax for 1 to 2 minutes every 15 minutes. Apply ice around the wound, cut the skin of the wound, use a suction device or cupping to suck out the venom, and use potassium permanganate solution or lime water to rinse the wound. Those with severe symptoms should go to the hospital for treatment.

Insect characteristics:

In the animal kingdom, it belongs to the class Insecta in the phylum Arthropoda, and its body consists of three parts: head, thorax, and abdomen;

The head has a pair of antennae and a mouth, usually with compound eyes and simple eyes, which are the parts for sensing and feeding; the thorax has three pairs of legs, and some also have two pairs of wings, which are the center of movement; the abdomen contains most of the internal organs and reproductive organs, which is the part for reproduction and metabolism;

Insects undergo changes in their physical form during their growth and development, gradually transforming into adults, such as a pupa emerging from its shell into a butterfly. This is called metamorphosis.

Therefore, the basic characteristics of insects can be summarized as follows: "The body has three sections: head, thorax, and abdomen; two pairs of wings and six legs; one pair of antennae on the head; the skeleton is wrapped outside the body; the shape changes throughout life; a prosperous family spread all over the world."