Centipedes and Millipedes by Stella M. Turk MBE
Centipedes are carnivores
With suitably big strong jaws
Millipedes are herbivores
With smaller masticating jaws
Centipedes are designed for speed
Chasing creatures on which to feed.
Millipedes have no need to race
Gliding along at a leisurely pace.
Stella M Turk MBE
October 2008
Stellas notes:
Centipedes can have more than hundred legs neatly arranged in pairs. Millipede do not aspire to a thousand even though they they are in pairs. Although millipedes and centipedes have been grouped together under the Myriapodda they are not closely related!
The quoting of the following verse is from memory, and we I tried to check it on the Internet, I found so many versions that I decided to use my own rendering!
The centipede was happy, quite
Until a toad, in fun, asked ‘Pray tell
Me which leg moves after which’.
This raised her doubts to such a pitch,
She fell exhausted in a ditch,
Not knowing how to run.
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