''Scolopendra dehaani'', the giant Vietnamese centipede, is a large scolopendrid

centipede Centipedes (from Neo-Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', "lip", and Neo-Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, ...

found across

Mainland Southeast Asia Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

.Nariman Vazifdar, Patrick W. Aust, Mervyn D’Costa,
A Centipede (Scolopendra dehaani) Feeding on a Juvenile Andaman Wolfsnake (Lycodon hypsirhinoides) on Havelock Island, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
' It is also found in India, Japan, Hong Kong, and the

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a ...

.Review of the subspecies of Scolopendra subspinipes Leach, 1815 with the new description of the South Chinese member of the genus Scolopendra Linnaeus, 1758 named Scolopendra hainanum spec. nov. (Myriapoda, Chilopoda, Scolopendridae) by Christian Kronmüller
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Taxonomy

''Scolopendra dehaani'' was originally named by Brandt in 1840, but was reclassified by

Carl Attems Carl August Graf Attems-Petzenstein (13 October 1868 in Graz, Austria – 19 April 1952 in Vienna) was an Austrian myriapoda, myriapodologist and invertebrate zoology, invertebrate zoologist. He published 138 scientific papers, most of them d ...

in 1930 as a subspecies of '' Scolopendra subspinipes''. A 2012 paper reclassified it as a separate species.

Morphology

''Scolopendra dehaani'' is one of the largest centipedes in the genus '' Scolopendra'', and some specimens have been found to reach or exceed 25 cm in length. It usually lives for five to six years. Specimens usually have brownish-orange tergites (the hard plates on the tops of the segments) and yellow . In a 2016 paper, the authors suggested ''S. dehaani'' has five distinct colour morphs: four were dichromatic, one other was

monochromatic A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...

, and all were generally reddish, brown, or orange in coloration:

Diet

''Scolopendra dehaani'' usually preys on smaller arthropods such as

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s, and vinegaroons, but they have been found eating small snakes and other vertebrates, including, in one observation, a

tree frog A tree frog (or treefrog) is any species of frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees, known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia suborder have given rise to treefrogs, although they are not clos ...

.Novel foraging behaviors of Scolopendra dehaani (Chilopoda: Scolopendridae) in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, Hodges, Cameron and Goodyear, Jesse, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348890454_Novel_foraging_behaviors_of_Scolopendra_dehaani_Chilopoda_Scolopendridae_in_Nakhon_Ratchasima_Thailand One paper suggested that ''S. dehaani'' forages arboreally, and it has even been recorded doing so in daytime. File:Scolopendra dehaani life stages.jpg, alt= File:Scolopendra dehaani hanging from a camera tripod.jpg, alt= File:Scolopendra dehaani1.jpg, alt= File:Vietnamese Centipede imported from iNaturalist photo 84659836 on 24 September 2022.jpg, ''S. dehaani'' eating a snake of the genus '' Hypsiscopus.''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20635154 dehaani Animals described in 1840