Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 External morphology and functional anatomy
- 3 The integument, moulting and regeneration
- 4 The musculature and endoskeleton
- 5 The nervous system and sense organs
- 6 Sensory responses and related behaviour
- 7 Endocrinology
- 8 The alimentary canal
- 9 The poison glands
- 10 Feeding and digestion
- 11 The respiratory system
- 12 The circulatory system
- 13 Pigments
- 14 Connective tissue and fat body
- 15 Head glands
- 16 The Malpighian tubules and nephridia
- 17 The reproductive system and reproduction
- 18 Post-embryonic development and life history
- 19 Epidermal glands and their function, defence and predators
- 20 Parasites
- 21 Physiology and ecology
- 22 Taxonomy
- 23 Relationships of the chilopod orders
- 24 The classification of the Chilopoda
- Bibliography
- Index
18 - Post-embryonic development and life history
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 External morphology and functional anatomy
- 3 The integument, moulting and regeneration
- 4 The musculature and endoskeleton
- 5 The nervous system and sense organs
- 6 Sensory responses and related behaviour
- 7 Endocrinology
- 8 The alimentary canal
- 9 The poison glands
- 10 Feeding and digestion
- 11 The respiratory system
- 12 The circulatory system
- 13 Pigments
- 14 Connective tissue and fat body
- 15 Head glands
- 16 The Malpighian tubules and nephridia
- 17 The reproductive system and reproduction
- 18 Post-embryonic development and life history
- 19 Epidermal glands and their function, defence and predators
- 20 Parasites
- 21 Physiology and ecology
- 22 Taxonomy
- 23 Relationships of the chilopod orders
- 24 The classification of the Chilopoda
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The embryonic development of centipedes will not be described here: it has been reviewed by Johannsen & Butt (1941). The most important work is that of Heymons (1901) on the embryology of Scolopendra spp. Verhoeff (1902–25) quoted at length from Heymons and added further data. Dohle (1970) and Knoll (1974) described the embryological development of Scutigera coleoptrata.
The Chilopoda exhibit two distinct patterns of post-embryonic development. In the epimorphic orders Geophilomorpha and Scolopendromorpha, the young hatch with a full, or almost full, complement of legs and the eggs and early post-embryonic stadia are brooded by the female. In the anamorphic orders Lithobiomorpha and Scutigeromorpha, the eggs are laid singly and are not brooded by the female. The young hatch with less than the adult number of legs and the number gradually increases during the early moults. Data for the Craterostigmus are currently very fragmentary.
Geophilomorpha
Larval stadia and brooding
Latzel (1880) gave brief notes on the larval stages of a large number of geophilomorphs. More detailed accounts have been given for Geophilus proximus and Pachymerium ferrugineum by Sograff (1883), for Dicellophilus carniolensis (C. L. Koch) together with notes on some other species by Verhoff (1902–25), for the American species Geophilus rubens by Johnson (1952), for Strigamia maritima by Lewis (1960) and for Necrophloeophagus longicornis and Clinopodes linearis by Weil (1958).
The process of hatching in geophilomorphs is a gradual process, the egg splitting into two halves to reveal the ‘last embryonic phase’.
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- The Biology of Centipedes , pp. 299 - 336Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1981