Centipede Poison Claws

The 3,000 documented species of centipedes, along with the closely related millipede family, are members of the Myriapoda. As the subphylum's name implies, these arthropods have many more legs than the hexapods or insects. However, with a minimum of 15 pairs of legs and not the legendary 100 (or a 1,000 in the case of millipedes), the common names for their classes are largely misnomers. After the mouthparts, the poison claws or forcipules are the first modified pair of legs or maxillipeds ("jaw legs") of the centipedes.