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Sticker of Greater cryptops
Bug card No. 2036 of 4,939

Greater cryptops

Cryptops anomalans
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsCentipedes and millipedesGardens and meadowsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The greater cryptops is a fast, many-legged centipede from Europe. It can grow up to 5 centimetres long, which makes it one of the biggest in its group. It looks a lot like two of its cousins, so you need a magnifying glass to tell them apart.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect. Insects have six legs, and this cousin has many, many more.
Lives in
Europe and North Africa, and also parts of Canada
Length
5 cm (2 in)
up to
Top speed
about 1.9 km/h (1.2 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
Like other centipedes, it is a hunter that catches small creatures in the soil.
For real!Photo of Greater cryptops
Picture by Stephen James McWilliam. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Greater cryptops about 5 cm long (2 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 8 grains of rice in a rowas long as 1.5 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1.9 seconds

How big is Greater cryptops compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is one of the largest centipedes in its group, the cryptops.

2

Experts tell it apart from its cousins by a seam shaped like the letter X on the first plate of its back.

3

It lives in many countries across Europe and also in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

4

It has even been found in parts of Canada, far away from its home in Europe.

you asked

Most asked questions about Greater cryptops

?How big is the greater cryptops?

It can grow up to about 5 centimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Cryptops anomalans
Group
Centipedes and millipedes
Family
Cryptopidae
Classification
Chilopoda > Scolopendromorpha > Cryptopidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, North America
Also known as
Anomalous cryptops

Where the facts come from

  1. Cryptops anomalans (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Stephen James McWilliam. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Centipedes and millipedes

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows

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