

ADULT FEMALE

Specimen provided by Jon Fouskaris.

Photo taken by Jon Fouskaris.

The Vietnamese Centipede is a large, aggressive, and medically significant centipede that is not restricted to the country of Vietnam, as its' name might suggest. In actuality, the Vietnamese Centipede is found throughout the worlds' tropical and subtropical regions, especially in Southeast Asia. There are many species being imported out of Southeast Asia, and much confusion still exists with regards to centipede taxonomy. Besides the different species found throughout Southeast Asia, there are color variations, and there's a moot claim of five subspecies of the Vietnamese Centipede! As you can start to see, centipede taxonomy is not easy. The Vietnamese Centipede is one of the less expensive centipede species in the hobby, and although it has a bad bite, it is a common first centipede in collections. This is probably because the Vietnamese Centipede is impressive, easy to obtain, and most centipedes have a bad bite anyway, so if one is planning on keeping centipedes, any one species seems as good as the other. The Vietnamese Centipede is the only species that has a human death attributed to it. The only reported fatal case was in the Philippines; the centipede bit a seven-year old girl on her head, and she lived for another 29 hours. Even though death from a bite of the Vietnamese Centipede is almost unheard of, the venom is said to cause extreme pain, therefore you want to exercise care with this centipede. Overall, the Vietnamese Centipede is a species that you won't get bored of.