We bring you a list of ‘Animals with Multiple Legs’, explaining how each animal uses their multiple legs for survival.
In this Article, We shall discover ‘Animals with Multiple Legs’ along with pictures so you can see how amazing they really are.
Table of Contents
Goliath birdeater : 8 Legs
A Goliath birdeater is a species of tarantula and is the largest weighing spider that belongs to Genus Theraphosa, Family Theraphosidae and is found in northern South America, Venezuela,Brazil, Guyana, and French Guiana.
These are large spiders weighing up to 175 gram with eight legs or four pairs of walking legs that are equally distributed on the lateral side of their body. It has long legs making them the second spider with the largest spider by leg span after the giant huntsman spider.
Its hindlegs are used to rub against their abdomen to release hairs that acts as an irritant to skin of humans.
Giant huntsman spider: 8 Legs
A giant huntsman spider is a large-sized spider that belongs to Genus Heteropoda, Family Sparassidae, and is found in Laos.
They are the largest spider due to their large leg span as they can reach up to 30 cm or 1 foot. It has long legs through which they are able to attack larger prey such as small lizards, and frogs. Through their legs, they can show different types of maneuverability.
Its long legs are expected to be the adaptation toward their habitat and hunting where they are usually found in caves. Interestingly, The foot of the second leg on both sides or lateral sides of its body possess specialized hairs.
Coconut Crab: 10 Legs
A coconut crab, also known as the robber crab or palm thief, is a land hermit crab and is the currently known largest terrestrial arthropod in the world. This crab belongs to Genus Birgus, Family Coenobitidae, and is found in the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the coast of Africa, the Gambier Islands.
Surprisingly, They can weigh up to 4 kg and have long legs resulting in a leg span of about 1 m. It has 10 legs, some are meant for walking and climbing. While the last pair of legs have different functions, In females they are used for laying eggs, while males use them for mating.
Its smallest hind legs are primarily used for cleaning their breathing organs and also to keep them in wet condition to keep them in proper functioning.
Hickory Horned Devil: 16 Legs
A hickory horned devil is a caterpillar that belongs to Genus Citheronia, Family Saturniidae, and is found in Massachusetts, New Jersey. Texas and Florida.
It is the longest species of caterpillar in the world that could reach up to a foot long and possess 8 pairs of legs that are used for locomotion.
Amazonian Giant Centipede: 21-23 Pair of Legs
An amazonian giant centipede, also known as the Peruvian giant yellow-leg centipede, is a species of centipede that belongs to Genus Scolopendra, Family Scolopendridae, and is found in northern South America, the Caribbean, and other places.
This centipede has yellow-colored 21 or 23 pairs of legs. Among these, the first pair of legs is modified into claws, also referred to as fangs, that are meant for delivering venom into its prey.
They are giants so they are called Amazonian giant centipedes or Peruvian giant yellow-leg centipedes that could reach up to 30 cm in length.
House Centipede: 15 pair of Legs
A house centipede is a small-sized species of centipedes that belongs to Genus Scutigera, Family Scutigeridae, and is found in areas with high moisture that includes rotting logs, under stones, piles of leaves and grass, damp basements.
They have 15 pairs of long legs that are used to crawl a wide range of habitats such as under stones, water pipelines, bathrooms, and plant pots. Interestingly, they are able to achieve a speed of about 1.3 feet per second.
To protect themselves they can give a bite but its bites found to be non-venomous or less-venomous as compared to other centipedes.
Chinese red-headed centipede: 21-23 Pair of Legs
A Chinese red-headed centipede, also known as jungle centipede, orange-legged centipede, red-headed centipede, Hawaiian centipede, and Vietnamese centipede, is a large-sized centipede that belongs to Genus Scolopendra, Family Scolopendridae and is found in Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, America, and other places as well.
They have yellow or yellow-orange 21-23 pairs of legs, two legs from each segment of their body. A pair of specialised and modified legs known as forcipules on its heads.
They attack and coil around the body of a prey while injecting its venom through forcipules to make them slow or die.
Giant Forest Scorpion : 8 Legs
A giant forest scorpion is a large-sized scorpio that belongs to Genus Heterometrus, Family Scorpionidae and is found in Sri Lanka and India.
They are the largest scorpion as they can reach up to 23 cm or 9 inches in length and weigh as much as 55 gram. These have four pairs of legs that are equally distributed on the lateral side of their body.
Its legs are strong enough to fight against prey without injecting venom as they attack and crush the prey through its pincers.
Giant African Millipede : 256 Legs
A giant African millipede, also known as the shongololo, is the large-sized millipede that belongs to Genus Archispirostreptus, Family Spirostreptidae and is found in western Africa and other places.
These are the largest species of millipede that can reach up to 14 inches in length, and can have as many as 256 legs that may vary in number as they under molting.
They have so many legs that provide crawling on different places such as rocks, trees, plants, and so on without falling.
Illacme plenipes : 600 Legs
Illacme plenipes is a millipede species that belongs to Genus Illacme, Family Siphonorhinidae and is found in California and other places.
These are the millipede that have more than 600 legs and expected to possess up to 750 legs and is considered as the animal with the most legs in the world.
This species is rare as it was rediscovered recently in California, while it was observed around 80 years ago.
Sunflower Sea Star: 16-24 Legs
The sunflower sea star, is a large-sized sea star that belongs to Genus Pycnopodia, Family Asteriidae and is found in eastern Pacific Ocean, Unalaska Island, Alaska, California, and Monterey Bay.
Interestingly, The juvenile of the sunflower stars usually have five arms and upon reaching maturity they can have up to 24 arms. There are about 15,000 tube feet that help them move rapidly.
These are the currently known largest sea stars in the world, fastest sea star, and possess 16 to 24 limbs or arms that are long resulting in an arm span of about 1 m in length.
Giant dragonfly: 6 Legs
A giant dragonfly, also known as south-eastern petaltail, is a large-sized giant dragonfly that belongs to Genus Petalura, Family Petaluridae.
They have three pairs of legs along with transparent wings, large eyes, long bodies and long tails. Interestingly, They are extremely fast fliers at a speed of about 30 miles per hour, and even fly backwards.
This is currently considered as one of the largest dragonflies in the world that can reach up to 7 cm long with a wingspan of about 11 cm.
Giant Tiger Prawn: 10 Legs
A giant tiger prawn, also known as the Asian tiger shrimp, and black tiger shrimp, is aquatic species that belongs to Genus Penaeus, and Family Penaeidae and is found in Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Australia.
They have five pairs of walking legs that are also used for swimming, helps in feeding. Along with one pair of eyes, two pairs of antennae and other parts as well.
They can grow up to 33 cm body length and weigh between 100 and 170 gram.
Giant Isopod : 14 Legs
A giant isopod is a carnivorous aquatic creature that belongs to Genus Bathynomus, Family Cirolanidae and is found in Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Oceans and other places as well.
They have seven pairs of legs. Among these, some legs help in feeding, and few are swimming legs. These can grow up to 16 inches in length making them one of the large members among the crustaceans.
They are not bugs and also not bottom dwelling creatures while they can live for longer time without feeding.
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