house centipedes love eating spiders, their favorite food after moths, and have a unique way of hunting that is part scorpion and part cowboy! this one is after a large Trachelas sac spider, and it has to move very fast to avoid being bitten while itself trying to bite.

the house centipede’s 30 prehensile limbs, made of numerous tiny segments that actually lasso the spider’s limbs several times, hold it in place. the centipede can then “bite” (really, sting with modified legs) and safely wait for the spider to die in its grasp.

only once the spider is immobilized will the centipede eat. house centipedes are anatomically more primitive than other Chilopoda, and their long, thin “fangs” still resemble the legs they evolved from. they’re very successful hunters to have changed little in 300 million years!