Named for the mythological god of the underworld, Geophilus hadesi is a newly discovered species of centipede that inhabits the deep caves of the Velebit Mountains in Croatia. Unlike most centipedes of the order Geophilomorpha, which only occasionally seek shelter in caves, G. hadesi spends all its life in this dark, underground environment. Today (June 30), the team of scientists who discovered the remarkable critter published the first-ever description of the animal in the journal ZooKeys. Lurking in the dark vaults of some of the world's deepest caves, the Hades centipede has also had its name picked to pair another underground-dwelling relative named after Persephone, the queen of the underworld. This finding comes to prove once again how little we know about the life in caves, where even in the best prospected areas, one can still find incredible animals" says the lead author Pavel Stoev, Pensoft Publishers and National Museum of Natural History, Sofia. Like most centipedes, G. hadesi feeds on living animals — most likely larvae, springtails (tiny, insectlike hexapods), worms, woodlice, spiders and other small prey. While scientists from the Croatian Biospeleogical Society have explored the Velebit Mountains where the Hades centipede lives, some of the crevices it inhabits are unreachable. The new species is yet another addition to the astonishing cave critters that live in the Velebit, a mountain that stretches over 145 km in the Croatian Dinaric Karst, which is as a whole considered a hot spot of subterranean diversity.
– Scientists hoped they'd find some exotic creatures burrowing through some of the deepest caves in Croatia, and they did not come up short. Meet Geophilus hadesi—or "Hades," named for the Greek god of the underworld—a subterranean centipede discovered in the Velebit mountain range by the Croatian Biospeleological Society, per a press release. The carnivore eats other invertebrates and also shows some longer-than-average legs and antennae (which help it find prey in total darkness, LiveScience notes), as well as jaws filled with poison. But what really makes this "centipede from hell" unique is that it's one of "only two remarkably troglomorphic geophilomorphs hitherto known," per the study in ZooKeys. Translation: It's one of only two centipede species that never leaves its cave dwellings, earning it its alternate title of "king of the underworld." And Hades has a queen, too, who never leaves her own underground domicile: Geophilus persephones, or "Persephone," named for the Greek goddess of the underworld, per LiveScience. That species was discovered in southern France in 1999, the study notes. Hades has a couple of features that scientists believe emerged as evolutionary adaptation traits, including long claws at the end of its 33 pairs of legs (perhaps so it can cling to rocks) and the ability to withstand the caves' chilly temps, which can hover in the 30s. How they migrated to these underground dwellings in the first place isn't certain, but the lead author of the study tells LiveScience that it could have been "a dramatic change in the outside temperatures and overall conditions that forced less-adaptive organisms to seek shelter underground where the conditions are more stable and less dependent on the outside fluctuations." (A centipede bite could provide more pain relief than morphine.)