Scolopendra (through Latin from Greek σκολόπενδρα, skolopendra) is a species-rich genus of large tropical centipedes of the family Scolopendridae.
The genus Scolopendra contains many species of centipedes found across the world's tropics and warmer temperate areas. The species vary considerably in coloration and size. Scolopendra are mostly very large centipedes. The largest species found in tropical climates can exceed 30 cm (12 in) and are the largest living centipedes in the world.[2]All Scolopendra species can deliver a painful bite, injecting venom through their forcipules, which are not fangs or other mouthparts; rather, these are modified legs on the first body segment.
Scolopendra are active predators, feeding primarily on insects and other invertebrates. Larger specimens have been observed preying on frogs, tarantulas, lizards, birds, snakes, rodents, and even bats.[3] Two southeast Asian species, S. cataracta and S. paradoxa, are amphibious, as these species can travel underwater by swimming or walking.[4][5][6]
The venom is not medically significant for most species; however, bites from several species can cause intense and long-lasting pain and swelling. Large Scolopendra species from Asian/Pacific regions, such as Scolopendra subspinipes and Scolopendra dehaani, are particularly potent, and have caused one reported fatality.[7] In 2014, a fatality was reported for a bite from a Scolopendra gigantea.[8] The venom of certain Scolopendra species were found to contain compounds such as serotonin, haemolytic phospholipase, a cardiotoxic protein, and a cytolysin.[9]
Scolopendra was one of the genera created by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, the starting point for zoological nomenclature. Only two of the species originally assigned to the genus remain so: Scolopendra gigantea and S. morsitans; the latter was chosen to be the type species by Opinion 454 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature,[2] overruling a previous designation by Pierre André Latreille, in which he chose Linnaeus' Scolopendra forficata (now Lithobius forficatus) as the type species.[10]
One fossil species, †Scolopendra proavita, is known from Baltic amber deposits from the Eocene of Poland.[12] Fossil remains of a species tentatively assigned to S. morsitans (as S. (cf) morsitans) are also known from Pliocene-aged rocks in the Makapansgat of South Africa.[13]