Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn

Centipedes of Texas

Subphylum Myriapoda - Class Chilopoda - Order Scolopendromorpha

Red-headed Centipede - Scolopendra heros Girard, 1853 

Family Scolopendridae

Two-spotted Forester - Alypiodes bimaculata

Sonora, Sutton County, Texas
September 2005 (Delyse Jaeger)

Scolopendra heros - University of Arkansas 
Distribution map - Shelley (2002)

The following list of species and distribution maps compiled by Dr. Rowland M. Shelley, Curator of Terrestrial Invertebrates, North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, after examining countless thousands of scolopendromorphs deposited in museums and university collections throughout North America. First published in Shelley (2002) and subsequently posted here.

North America Taxa: There are 21 species of Scolopendromorph Centipedes native to North America, north of Mexico.

Texas Taxa: 

Family Scolopendridae

Scolopendra viridis Say, 1821 - distribution map - ranges south to Panama
Scolopendra polymorpha Wood, 1861 - distribution map 
Scolopendra heros Girard, 1853 - distribution map

Hemiscolopendra marginata (Say, 1821) - distribution map

Arthrorhabdus pygmaeus (Pocock, 1895) - distribution map

Family Scolopocryptopidae 

Scolopocryptops sexspinosus (Say, 1821) - distribution map

Family Cryptopidae 

Theatops posticus (Say, 1821) - distribution map - ranges south to northern Mexico
Theatops spinicaudus (Wood, 1862) distribution map 
Theatops phanus Chamberlin, 1951 - distribution map - endemic to south-central Texas

Cryptops leucopodus (Rafinesque, 1820) - distribution map
Cryptops hortensis (Donovan, 1810) - distribution map - an introduced European species

Also occurring in North America are Centipedes in the Orders Lithobiomorpha and Geophilomorpha

References: 

Cloudsley-Thompson, J.L. 1958. Spiders, Scorpions, Centipedes, and Mites. (revised, 1968). Pegamon, Oxford. 228 pp.

Lewis, J.G.E. 1981. The Biology of Centipedes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Shelley, R. M. 1999. Centipedes and Millipedes with Emphasis on North America Fauna. Kansas School Naturalist, 45(3):

Shelley, R. M. 2002. A synopsis of the North American centipedes of the order Scolopendromorpha (Chilopoda). Memoir 5. Virginia Museum of Natural History, Martinsville, VA. 114 pp.

14 Aug 2009  © Mike Quinn / entomike@gmail.com / Texas Entomology / Problem Invertebrates