With an incident in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, USA, Scolopendra heros Girard (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae) becomes the third centipede species known to prey on bats; S. gigantea Linnaeus and S. viridicornis Newport have been so documented in Venezuela and Brazil, respectively. The Texas predation was interrupted by the predator/prey pair’s falling around 15–20 m from the canyon wall and, perhaps also, by human presence where they landed. The centipede uncoiled and retreated to shelter under a nearby rock and, after initial immobilization, so did the bat.
Con un incidente en Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, Estados Unidos, Scolopendra heros Girard (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae) se convierte en el tercer ciempiés que se sabe depreda murciélagos; S. gigantea Linnaeus y S. viridicornis Newport han sido documentados mostrando este comportamiento en Venezuela y Brasil, respectivamente. El incidente de Texas fue interrumpido por el despeñamiento del par depredador/presa unos 15–20 m desde la pared del cañón y, al parecer, por la presencia humana en el sitio de caída. El ciempiés se desenrolló y retiró para refugiarse bajo una roca cercana. Tras permanecer inmóvil inicialmente, el murciélago hizo lo mismo

Lindley, T. Todd

Molinari, Jesús

Shelley, Rowland M.

Steger, Barry N.

English

UNL | Libraries

University of Nebraska - Lincoln
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Insecta Mundi Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville,Florida
8-25-2017
A fourth account of centipede (Chilopoda)
predation on bats
T. Todd Lindley
Norman, OK, caprockcanyoneer@icloud.com
Jesús Molinari
Universidad de Los Andes, molinari@ula.ve
Rowland M. Shelley
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, rowland.shelley1@gmail.com
Barry N. Steger
Borger, TX, banest@cableone.net
Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi
Part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, and the Entomology Commons
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida at DigitalCommons@University
of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Insecta Mundi by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska
- Lincoln.
Lindley, T. Todd; Molinari, Jesús; Shelley, Rowland M.; and Steger, Barry N., "A fourth account of centipede (Chilopoda) predation on
bats" (2017). Insecta Mundi. 1064.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi/1064
CENTER FOR SYSTEMATIC ENTOMOLOGY, INC., Gainesville, FL
A fourth account of centipede (Chilopoda) predation on bats
T. Todd Lindley
3300 Teton Lane 
Norman, OK 73072 USA
Jesús Molinari
Departamento de Biología
Universidad de Los Andes
Mérida 5101 Venezuela
Rowland M. Shelley
Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996 USA
Barry N. Steger
107 Saint James Street
Borger, TX 79007 USA
Date of Issue: August 25, 2017
0573
INSECTA
 MUNDI A Journal of World Insect Systematics
T. Todd Lindley, Jesús Molinari, Rowland M. Shelley, and Barry N. Steger
A fourth account of centipede (Chilopoda) predation on bats
Insecta Mundi 0573: 1–4
ZooBank Registered: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:53C2B8CA-DB7E-4921-94C5-0CA7A8F7A400
Published in 2017 by
Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc.
P. O. Box 141874
Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 USA
http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/
 Insecta Mundi is a journal primarily devoted to insect systematics, but articles can be published on any 
non-marine arthropod. Topics considered for publication include systematics, taxonomy, nomenclature, checklists, 
faunal works, and natural history. Insecta Mundi will not consider works in the applied sciences (i.e. medical 
entomology, pest control research, etc.), and no longer publishes book reviews or editorials. Insecta Mundi publishes 
original research or discoveries in an inexpensive and timely manner, distributing them free via open access on 
the internet on the date of publication.
 Insecta Mundi is referenced or abstracted by several sources including the Zoological Record, CAB Ab-
stracts, etc. Insecta Mundi is published irregularly throughout the year, with completed manuscripts assigned 
an individual number. Manuscripts must be peer reviewed prior to submission, after which they are reviewed by 
the editorial board to ensure quality. One author of each submitted manuscript must be a current member of the 
Center for Systematic Entomology.
Chief Editor: David Plotkin, e-mail: insectamundi@gmail.com
Assistant Editor: Paul E. Skelley, e-mail: insectamundi@gmail.com
Head Layout Editor: Eugenio H. Nearns
Editorial Board: J. H. Frank, M. J. Paulsen, Michael C. Thomas
Review Editors: Listed on the Insecta Mundi webpage
Manuscript Preparation Guidelines and Submission Requirements available on the Insecta Mundi web-
page at: http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/insectamundi/
Printed copies (ISSN 0749-6737) annually deposited in libraries: 
CSIRO, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Museu de Zoologia, São Paulo, Brazil 
Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada 
The Natural History Museum, London, UK
Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii PAN, Warsaw, Poland
National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Gainesville, FL, USA
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Electronic copies (Online ISSN 1942-1354, CDROM ISSN 1942-1362) in PDF format:
Printed CD or DVD mailed to all members at end of year. Archived digitally by Portico.
Florida Virtual Campus: http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/insectamundi
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi/
Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-135240
Copyright held by the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Com-
mons, Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and 
reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc/3.0/
Layout Editor for this article: Eugenio H. Nearns
 A fourth account of centipede (Chilopoda) predation on bats
T. Todd Lindley
3300 Teton Lane 
Norman, OK 73072 USA
caprockcanyoneer@icloud.com
Jesús Molinari
Departamento de Biología
Universidad de Los Andes
Mérida 5101 Venezuela
molinari@ula.ve
Rowland M. Shelley
Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996 USA
rowland.shelley1@gmail.com
Barry N. Steger
107 Saint James Street
Borger, TX 79007 USA
banest@cableone.net
Abstract. With an incident in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, USA, Scolopendra heros Girard (Chilopoda: Scolopen-
dromorpha: Scolopendridae) becomes the third centipede species known to prey on bats; S. gigantea Linnaeus and 
S. viridicornis Newport have been so documented in Venezuela and Brazil, respectively. The Texas predation was 
interrupted by the predator/prey pair’s falling around 15–20 m from the canyon wall and, perhaps also, by human 
presence where they landed. The centipede uncoiled and retreated to shelter under a nearby rock and, after initial 
immobilization, so did the bat.
Key Words. Brazil, carnivore, Palo Duro Canyon, Scolopendra, Texas, Venezuela.
Resumen. Con un incidente en Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, Estados Unidos, Scolopendra heros Girard (Chilopoda: 
Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae) se convierte en el tercer ciempiés que se sabe depreda murciélagos; S. gigantea 
Linnaeus y S. viridicornis Newport han sido documentados mostrando este comportamiento en Venezuela y Brasil, 
respectivamente. El incidente de Texas fue interrumpido por el despeñamiento del par depredador/presa unos 15–20 
m desde la pared del cañón y, al parecer, por la presencia humana en el sitio de caída. El ciempiés se desenrolló y 
retiró para refugiarse bajo una roca cercana. Tras permanecer inmóvil inicialmente, el murciélago hizo lo mismo.
Palabras Clave. Brasil, carnívoro, Cañón de Palo Duro, Scolopendra, Texas, Venezuela.
Introduction
 Predation of vertebrates by invertebrates is rarely observed. Large species of arachnids, insects 
and centipedes occasionally feed on frogs and toads, lizards, snakes, birds and chicks, and bats (Okeden 
1903; Lawrence 1953; Cloudsley-Thompson 1955; Butler 1970; Easterla 1975; Goldberg 1975; Lewis 
1981; McCormick and Polis 1982; Carpenter and Gillingham 1984; Toledo 2005; Forti et al. 2007; Timm 
and Losilla 2007; Lewis et al. 2010; Noronha et al. 2015; Seshadri et al. 2017). Centipedes are oppor-
tunistic and voracious predators (Dugon and Arthur 2012a, b) and are known to prey on mice, voles 
and other small rodents, particularly juveniles (Cloudsley-Thompson 1955, 1958; Shugg 1961; Porter 
1973; Clark 1979; Lewis 1981). To date, only three accounts of centipede predation on bats, all by spe-
cies of Scolopendra Linnaeus (Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae/-inae), have been documented. The 
fi rst was by S. gigantea Linnaeus in a Venezuelan cave (Molinari et al. 2005), and the others were by 
S. viridicornis Newport in Brazilian buildings (Srbek-Araujo et al. 2012; Noronha et al. 2015) (Fig. 1).
0573: 1–4 2017
2 • INSECTA MUNDI 0573, August 2017 LINDLEY ET AL.
Discussion
 On 14 October 2016, TTL and BNS were hiking in Palo Duro Canyon, in the panhandle of Texas, USA 
(101°33’26”W, 34°51’27”N), and fortuitously observed predation by S. heros Girard on the bat, Eptesicus 
fuscus (Palisot de Beauvois) (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) (Fig. 2–3). This sighting constitutes the fi rst 
in both North America and outside of tropical South America although a “large centipede,” identifi ed 
as S. morsitans Linnaeus but probably S. subspinipes Leach, has been implicated in the extinction of 
the endemic bat, Pipistrellus murrayi Andrews, from Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean (Beeton et 
al. 2010; Waldock and Lewis 2014). Scolopendra heros thus becomes the third centipede known to prey 
on bats and the fourth suspected of doing so.
 The incident occurred in a slot canyon estimated to average 5 m in width with nearly vertical walls 
20 m high. At 1130 h, the hikers heard a loud sound and promptly discovered an individual of E. fuscus 
on the canyon fl oor. As the bat moved its wings in an otherwise silent struggle, they noted a large S. 
heros wrapped around its head and upper torso. The hikers began photographing the pair one minute 
later, but the centipede began to uncoil (Fig. 4), perhaps because of their presence. Three minutes 
later it had released the bat and crawled under a rock less than one meter away while the injured bat 
remained where the pair had landed (Fig. 5). The centipede showed no evidence of injury, but the bat 
had two puncture wounds on its upper torso, near the right wing and below the back of the neck, and 
blood splatter was evident on adjacent rocks. The injured bat made only slow, minor movements for 
nearly 30 minutes, after which it crawled under another nearby rock.
 The centipede must have attacked the bat while it was roosting high on the canyon walls. Although 
not directly observed, roosting was indicated by guano on the rocks and canyon fl oor; predator and 
prey fell 15–20 m, thereby producing the noise that alerted the hikers. Both Molinari et al. (2005) and 
Srbek-Araujo et al. (2012) observed centipedes feeding on deceased and fallen bats that were reasoned 
to have been attacked on roosts above. The fresh blood and two visible wounds in the Texas incident 
were consistent with known predatory behavior of centipedes, which infl ict an initial puncture with 
their forcipules on the necks of vertebrate prey to inject venom near the brain for quick immobilization 
(Cloudsley-Thompson 1958; Shugg 1961; Stankiewicz et al. 1999). Centipede venom’s toxicity on bats 
is unknown (Molinari et al. 2005; Noronha et al. 2015), but that from some species is fatal to mice in 
20–32 seconds (Bücherl 1946). The Texas attack was not immediately fatal, perhaps because the fall 
dislodged the centipede’s forcipules to some degree. Although the bat initially appeared to suffer im-
mobilizing injuries, it was able to crawl to at least momentary safety a half-hour later.
Acknowledgments
 We thank D. Wright, K. Demere, L. Ammerman, and M. Meierhofer, for assistance in identifying 
the bat, and J. G. E. Lewis, for advice on references. Pre-submission reviews were conducted by J. G. 
E. Lewis and F. G. Cupul-Magaña.
Literature Cited
Beeton, R. J. S., A. Burbidge, G. Grigg, P. Harrison, R. How, W. Humphreys, N. McKenzie, and 
J. Woinarski. 2010. Final report of the Christmas Island Expert Working Group to Minister for the 
Department of Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts. DEWHA; Canberra, Australia. 245 p.
Bücherl, W. 1946. Acão do veneno dos escolopendromorfos do Brasil sôbre alguns animais de labora-
torio. Memórias do Instituto Butantan 19: 181–198. 
Butler, W. H. 1970. A record of an invertebrate preying on a vertebrate. Western Australia Naturalist 
11: 146.
Carpenter, C. C., and J. C. Gillingham. 1984. Giant centipede (Scolopendra alternans) attacks 
marine toad (Bufo marinus). Caribbean Journal of Science 20: 71–72.
Clark, D. A. 1979. A centipede preying on a nesting rice rat (Oryzomys bauri). Journal of Mammalogy 
60: 654.
INSECTA MUNDI 0573, August 2017 • 3CENTIPEDE PREDATION ON BATS
Cloudsley-Thompson, J. L. 1955. Some aspects of the biology of centipedes and scorpions. The Natu-
ralist Volume for 1955: 147–153.
Cloudsley-Thompson, J. L. 1968. Spiders, scorpions, centipedes and mites. Pergamon Press, New 
York. 228 p. + i–xiv.
Dugon, M. M., and W. Arthur. 2012a. Comparative studies on the structure and development of the 
venom-delivery system of centipedes, and a hypothesis on the origin of this evolutionary novelty. 
Evolution and Development 14: 128–137.
Dugon, M. M., and W. Arthur. 2012b. Prey orientation and the role of venom availability in the 
predatory behavior of the centipede Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans (Arthropoda: Chilopoda). 
Journal of Insect Physiology 58: 874–880. 
Easterla, D. A. 1975. Giant desert centipede feeds upon snake. Southwestern Naturalist 20: 411.
Forti, L. R., H. Z. Fischer, and L. C. Encarnação. 2007. Treefrog Dendropsophus elegans (Wied-
Neuwied 1824) (Anura: Hylidae) as a meal to Otostigmus tibialis Brölemann 1902 (Chilopoda: 
Scolopendridae) in the tropical rainforest in southeastern Brazil. Brazilian Journal of Biology 67: 
583–584.
Goldberg, S. R. 1975. Giant desert centipede preys upon snakes. Southwestern Naturalist 20: 411–413.
Lawrence, R. F. 1953. The biology of the cryptic fauna of forests: With special reference to the indig-
enous forests of South Africa. A. A. Balkema; Cape Town – Amsterdam. 408 p.
Lewis, J. G. E. 1981. The Biology of Centipedes. Cambridge University Press, UK. 476 p. + i–vii.
Lewis, J. G. E., P. Daszak, C. G. Jones, J. D. Cottingham, E. Wenman, and A. Maljkovic. 2010. 
Field observations on three scolopendrid centipedes from Mauritius and Rodriguez (Indian Ocean) 
(Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha). International Journal of Myriapodology 3: 123–137.
McCormick, S., and G. A. Polis. 1982. Arthropods that prey on vertebrates. Biological Review 57: 
29–58.
Molinari, J., E. E. Gutiérrez, A. A. Ascençao, J. M. Nassar, A. Arends, and R. J. Márquez. 2005. 
Predation by giant centipedes, Scolopendra gigantea, on three species of bats in a Venezuelan cave. 
Caribbean Journal of Science 41: 340–346.
Noronha, J. C., L. D. Battirola, A. Chagas-Júnior, R. M. Miranda, R. S. Carpanedo, and D. J. 
Rodrigues. 2015. Predation of bat (Molossus molossus: Molossidae) by the centipede Scolopendra 
viridicornis (Scolopendridae) in Southern Amazonia. Acta Amazonica 45: 333–336.
Okeden, W. P. 1903. A centipede eating a snake. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 15: 1.
Porter, R. N. 1973. Centipede feeding on fi eld mouse. Lammergeyer 19: 31.
Seshadri, K. S., S. Jaiswal, and K. V. Gururaja. 2017. Polypedates occidentalis (Western Tree Frog). 
Predation. Herpetological Review 48: 414–415.
Shugg, H. B. 1961. Predation on mouse by centipede. Western Australian Naturalist 8: 52.
Srbek-Araujo, A. C., M. R. Nogueira, L. P. Lima, and A. L. Peracchi. 2012. Predation by centipede 
Scolopendra viridicornis (Scolopendromorpha, Scolopendridae) on roof-roosting bats in the Atlantic 
Forest of southeastern Brazil. Chiroptera Neotropical 18: 1128–1131.
Stankiewicz, M., A. Hamon, R. Benkhalifa, W. Kadziela, B. Hue, and S. Lucas. 1999. Effects of 
a centipede venom fraction on insect nervous system, a native Xenopus oocyte receptor and on an 
expressed Drosophila muscarinic receptor. Toxicon 10: 1431–1445.
Timm, R. M., and M. Losilla. 2007. Orb-weaving spider, Argiope savignyi (Araneidae), predation on 
the Proboscis Bat Rhynchonycteris naso (Emballonuridae). Caribbean Journal of Science 43: 282–284.
Toledo, L. F. 2005. Predation of juvenile and adult anurans by invertebrates: current knowledge and 
perspective. Herpetological Review 36: 395–400.
Waldock, J. M., and J. G. E. Lewis. 2014. Recent collections of centipedes from Christmas Island 
(Myriapoda: Chilopoda). Raffl es Bulletin of Zoology Supplement 30: 71–80.
Received August 4, 2017; Accepted August 10, 2017.
Review Editor Lawrence Hribar.
4 • INSECTA MUNDI 0573, August 2017 LINDLEY ET AL.
Figures 1–3. Locations of Scolopendra predations on bats. 1) Western Hemisphere. Star, Palo Duro Canyon. 
Texas, USA. Dot, cave in Venezuela. Square/Triangle, Brazilian sites. 2) Location of Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. 
3) Photo of the slot canyon where the Texas incident occurred.
Figures 4–5. Photographs of centipede predation in Texas. 4) Uncoiling of Scolopendra heros from E. fuscus. 5) 
Injured bat after S. heros had retreated.


A fourth account of centipede (Chilopoda) predation on bats

Lindley, T. Todd, Molinari, Jesús, Shelley, Rowland M., Steger, Barry N. (2017): A fourth account of centipede (Chilopoda) predation on bats. Insecta Mundi 2017 (573): 1-4, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.516913

NEUROSURGERY ENTHUSIASTIC WOMEN SOCIETY

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2076&amp;context=insectamundi

A fourth account of centipede (Chilopoda) predation on bats

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UNL | Libraries

NEUROSURGERY ENTHUSIASTIC WOMEN SOCIETY