house centipede??
I assume this is a house centipede as from the front page of the website.
Sorry about the quality, only had the camera on my phone. cheers
Michael A Davis

Hi Michael,
Yes, this is a House Centipede.

Can you identify this bug?
We see them in SE Arizona. ~ 7-9" Long. Thank you,
Len

Hi Len,
What a gorgeous Centipede. This is probably a subspecies of Scolopendra heros, the Giant Red Headed Centipede. BugGuide also has one photo of this color variation, which might be considered a separate subspecies or just a color variation. Thanks for sending us your wonderful image. We wish the head was in the shot.

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Indonesian Centipede
Hi Bugman!
My daughter Alexa and I live in Kona, Hawaii where we get a fair number of these giant centipedes. You’ve already got some great pictures on your site of these, (Indonesian centipede, right?) but none of them truly capture the size of these critters. We have been waiting months to try to get a good picture of one of these guys, but they never seem to cooperate. Finally, this big one came wandering into our garage. Alexa (age 6) carefully put her plastic sand bucket over him while I ran and got our camera and a tape measure. To our mutual surprise, when we took off the bucket the centipede did not move and allowed me to take his picture several times. If you really stretched him out, I think he’s pushing 7 inches from antenae to rear legs. I know these centipedes can give you one hell of a bite, (the pain is supposed to last a couple of days) but they are really non-aggressive. I’ve had one stroll accross my bare foot. Plus, don’t these things eat cockroaches? Anyway, keep up the great work!
Jeff Lanterman

Hi Jeff,
We really want to thank you and your bug wrangler Alexa for supplying us with these wonderful photos. Yes, Tropical Centipedes do eat cockroaches.

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Here’s a beauty..
Took hours of taxonomical research, but I’m so impressed by this guy it was worth it..just wanted to share this beautiful creature..
Dana

Hi Dana,
We wish you would have shared the results of your research with us, or at least provided us a location.

Oops. I sent you a pic just now and forgot to tell you that it is a Scolopendra alternans, 9 inches long. Crawled out of my bag in Key Largo. Sure! Just didn’t want to send all that if you didn’t use it. This is a Scolopendra alternans. It’s a beautiful specimen, being a full 9 inches long. He crawled out of my carryall bag after I’d played a band gig at an older wooden building in the Florida Keys. Some species of Scolopendra are hard to I.D. due to the many color variations (brown or gray based) but I finally narrowed this one to S. Alternans from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science website. (Leach, 1815): “The distribution of S. Alternans in the contiguous U.S. is limited specifically to Monroe, Collier, and Dade counties in the state of Florida.” I live in Monroe county, and after much research found 2 other I.D. requests for this animal online–both from Key Largo. After taking a few photos, I set him free in the woods across the street. Hope you enjoy his unique beauty as much as I did!
D. Armenta

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