difference???

[bliss]

ok, this sounds stupid, but this is something i never understood with "blue ring" centipedes... but i've heard blue rings called by two names: E trigonopodus, and Sc. mortisans. which is it? is one an outdated name? or are they two different species with very similar common names?


thanks
dan

 

[Greg Pelka]

S. morsitans it's a different specie, E. trigonopodus it's a different specie. Unfortunetly in trade it is very common to sell E. trigonopodus as S. morsitans. It is a mistake, something simmilar to S. gigantea robusta.
E. trigonopodus has a colormorph called blue-ring leg, but it's only a colormorph.
Hope everything is clear now

 

[bliss]

so here's what i've got so far:

-E trigonopodus is a different specie than Sc. mortisans.

-Dealers and hobbyist will mistake an E trigonopodus for Sc mortisans, improper ID.

-E trigonopodus does however have a colormorph.



cool. well the one im looking at buying says that "great green and blue colors", but was selling it as Sc. mortisans... and i was thinking E trigonopodus when i first saw it being advertised. at least that's what it sounds like to me. thanks! just wondering

PS: so what exactly does the different colormorph of E trigonopodus look like anyways? do you have a pic of a normal E trigonopodus and a Colormorph E trig that you could show me for comparison?

 

[hibludij]

I was thinking that maybe the sellers are doing it on porpouse , cause Scolopendra morsitans sounds much cooler than Ethmostigmus trigonopodus, at least to me it does...

Here is a thread where I tried to breed the two colormorphs http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=102888&highlight=E.+trigonopodus

 

[bliss]

oh yeah THAT colormorph!! DUH bliss! yeah i've heard those two are the same. i know exactly which colormorph you guys are talking about now, it's all coming back to me.. (i've read a lot on centipedes, on here and on other european sites, and i remember reading about the yellow leg E trig and the normal E trig.).


not to mention my good friend J (his AB name is "scolopendra") lives close by and has both morphs. his normal E trig keeps laying eggs! but then eating them

 

[Scolopendra]

yup. that she does.
found a cool link to s.morsitans pics--->http://www.sbhnature.com/Scolopendres/Scolopendra_morsitans_06.jpg

 

[cacoseraph]

the real S. morsitans is sold as Tanzanian Tiger and Egyptian Emerald

EE's are AWESOME green coloration. TT's have black tiger stripes (bars perpendicular to long axis of body) on white/cream body and tergites and can have either black or red heads.

there are undoubtedly many more morsitans color/locality morphs out there

morsitans is a considerably less massive pede. i would say 5"BL (13cm) is the reasonable upper end for morsitans. maybe you can find some a tiny bit longer but not often. it also tends to have a much less bulky body build than Ethmostigmus.

a 5" morsitans would be about the size of a man's pinky in girth.... but the E. trigo's would be closer to his thumb's girth




the easy key difference... Ethmostigmus has spiracles on body segments 7 AND 8, but Scolopendra only has it on one. alternately put: Scolopendra genus does not have spiracles on adjacent segments, Ethmostigmus does

 

[cacoseraph]

yup. that she does.
found a cool link to s.morsitans pics--->http://www.sbhnature.com/Scolopendres/Scolopendra_morsitans_06.jpg

that reminds me. one AWESOME thing about morsitans... it is the only hobby species (there is another, but not really in the hobby, per se) that is SEXUALLY DIMORPHIC that we know about!

the femur and prefemur on the terminal legs will have ridging visible along the like, edges. females will not have the edging. Steven has a very good picture showing the difference that he posted here a while ago

 

[bliss]

wow that's sweet! we can tell the males from females with ease, and now perhaps someone can start Captive breeding them soon interesting caco.


dan