A new breed of centipede, commonly called Hades centipede, has been discovered deep down a cave by members of the Croatian Biospeleological Society.  Listed below are the three interesting things you should know about this so called "arthropod from hell."

1. Hades centipede's real name

Like Us on Facebook

Hades centipede's real name or rather its scientific name is Geophilus hadesi; it was named after the Greek mythological god of the underworld - Hades, PHYS.ORG has learned.

A member of a particular order called geophilomorphs, Hades centipede is a terrestrial arthropod belonging to the Chilopoda class of the subphylum Myriapoda.

2. Hades centipede's habitat

Geophilus hadesi was discovered by researchers in the deep caves of Croatia's Velebit mountains, CBC News reported.

Unlike most centipedes under the Geophilomorpha order that rarely seek shelter in caves, the Hades centipede's life cycle is spent entirely in the dark, underground environment, thus, it was named after Hades.

Like Hades, the arthropod has its queen of the underworld - Geophilus persephones which was first discovered in a cave in France in the 1990s.

As a matter of fact, G. hadesi was named with its mythical queen in mind as per Pavel Stoev, the lead author of "Creepy Crawlies & Flying Wonders: Incredible Cave Creatures," a paper detailing the new centipede breed - and associate professor of zoology at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Researchers reportedly recorded G. hadesi living as far as 1,100 meters below the surface of the Earth.

3. Hades centipede's physical characteristics and diet

Hades centipede's bodily features are so designed to help it survive in a deep and dark environment.

It has a long, flat body which makes crawling around rocky cave crevices easy. It has 33 pairs of legs with fine claws. Furthermore, it has "exceptionally elongated" antennae and furlike body hair which allow it to detect prey in complete darkness, Stoev reportedly said.

Like majority of the centipede population, G. hadesi feeds on live animals such as worms, spiders, larvae and other small prey.

Despite being venomous, this so called "arthropod from hell" is likely completely harmless to humans, Stoev said according to Yahoo.News.

The discovery and study results of G. hadesi were published in the journal "ZooKeys" on June 30.

TagsHADES, centipede, Science