The Probert Encyclopaedia of Nature

CENTIPEDE

Centipede is a term applied to various insect-like creatures having many feet, and a body consisting of numerous similar rings or segments (somites), all belonging to the order Cheilopoda, class Myriapoda. The most common British centipede, Lithobius forficatus, is quite harmless, but those of tropical countries belonging to the genus Scolopendra inflict severe and often dangerous bites. They sometimes grow to thirty centimetres in length.
Research Centipede