HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT?
Although similar in having many legs, centipedes and millipedes are vastly different organisms and only distantly related. They suffer from a dearth of knowledgeable specialists, both now and in the past, and from erroneous information that has been passed on by word of mouth. Popularized accounts are typically superficial and inaccurate, and even chapters in zoology textbooks fail to do justice to their complexities. A need exists for accurate generalized information that can be passed on to students and the public by teachers and museum guides, but this is difficult to prepare because many statements have exceptions, especially in millipedes.

This booklet is divided into eight sections: general information and body form; legs, segments, and development; reproduction; behavior; feeding; predation and defense; and effects on humans. The information is presented with contrasting conditions of centipedes and millipedes presented together for ready comparison. Technical terminology is minimized but is unavoidable in some cases, so definitions appear in parentheses after the first usage of each term. Classifications are presented first for each class as it is often necessary to refer to a particular order; reading them is optional.

Figure 1. Outline of generalized members of A) class Pauropoda and B) class Symphyla, the other multi-legged arthropods. Drawings by R.G. Kuhler.