A friend came over the other day after working on some construction, and suddenly this baby centipede was on our balcony. Probably it was hiding in his clothing, which isn’t really a place where you want to have a centipede. Although a bite from this centipede wouldn’t be fatal or cause permanent damage, it can still be very painful.

As far as I can tell, it was a juvenile from a genus of giant scorpions, possibly the species Scolopendra subspinipes, which is found in many tropical areas of the world and is not native to St. Martin. There are a few other related species on the island. They can live for several years and are primarily nocturnal hunters, eating insects, spiders, lizards and other small animals.

What may be most surprising – particularly for those who fear or hate the giant centipede for its bite – is how pretty the juvenile is, as you can see below.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 26th, 2011 at 9:21 am and is filed under Les Fruits sur la Terre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.