dead centipede underside

Class: Chilopoda (centipedes)
Order: Scolopendromorpha
Family: undetermined
Species: undetermined
Common Name: centipede (not species specific)
Date: 2001 July 02
Place: Guadalupe Mountains National Park
    Devil's Hall Trail in water hole at end of trail

I saw a small centipede running along the stone wall of the Visitor Center on several nights but none of these would pose long enough for me to get a picture. The one in the picture above had died and lay upside down in a pool of water. Each segment of the body of a centipede has one pair of legs - this includes the head since the "poison jaws" apparently are modified legs (these poison jaws are the small rounded pincers seen on the head in the upper right hand corner of the image). Centipedes are predators.

live centipede

centipede
2003 August 12 in the stream bed portion of the Devil's Hall Trail

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Note: This is a personal web site and is not affiliated with the National Park Service or Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Contact information for the author, Ron Lyons, is accessible through the Index Page referenced below. Thank you.