A creature was discovered living in the deepest part of a Croatian cave — a centipede from hell. They call it the Hades centipede. The word centipede has always given people the jitters, especially in pop culture wtih "The Human Centipede." Also, Hades is the Greek god of the underworld. Piece them together and you have this creature of the underworld. Why is it called that and what makes them so unusual?
Let these five facts answer those questions.
1. What's with the name?
The centipede was named Geophilus hadesi. It was taken after the Greek God of Underworld, Hades.
The name was picked to pair with another creature dwelling in the underground. Its name was patterned after Persephone, the queen of Underworld.
2. Who discovered it?
The arthropod was discovered by an international group of scientists working on research and conservation of the country's underground species, CBC News reported. They're members of Croatian Biospeleological Society.
The results of the study was published in ZooKeys journal.
3. Where did they find the Hades centipede?
The record showed that scientists found it living as far as 1,100 meters in the deepest caves of Croatia's Velebit mountains that stretch over 145 km in Croatian Dinaric Karst, which is considered as a subterranean diversity hot spot, according to Phys Org.
4. How many specimens did the scientist find?
While exploring the three mountain caves, researchers found four specimens of this type. However, they were only able to collect three.
One was taken about 250 meters below the surface. The other one was 500 meters below and the third was below 980 meters.
The scientists said that the last centipede was unreachable at 1,100 meters below the surface.
5. What makes it so unusual?
These cave dwellers have poisonous glands, strong jaws, curved claws in the front and back and extra-long antennas, UPI has learned.
These centipedes, which hunt and eat invertebrates, are considered as top predators beneath the earth.
