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legs to die for (mander.xyz)

submitted 7 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

Insects have 6 legs. If I had to guess its a centipede drawn with too many legs per segment.

[-] Cypher@lemmy.world 58 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutigera_coleoptrata

Commonly known as a house or carpet centipede.

The drawing is pretty accurate.

[-] Land_Strider@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

I've encountered these guys all my life. They are mostly small skittering puffy-stretches at a glance, but sometimes they can look like their red headed larger and snake-eating relatives at 4-5cm lengths.

They are extremely soft to the touch, as if a very light breeze just brushed off your arm hair. What I didn't know is that they are like cats in this behaviour:

House centipedes have been observed to groom their legs by curling around and grooming them with their forcipules.

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Forcipules are the modified, pincer-like, front legs of centipedes that are used to inject venom into prey. They are the only known examples of front legs acting as venom injectors.

Thank goodness

Also the image is

cursed: