Giant Centipede Handling

[cacoseraph]

One of my three favorite species of centipedes.

Scolopendra morsitans is found in africa, asia, philipines, one of the most widely distributed of the giant centipede species that i know of. Possibly because or correlating to this vast distribution, morsitans has one of the most interesting distributions of colormorphs in the giant centipede world.

This species is from Egypt. My individuals are wild caught. For all i know, their ancestors were bugs who feasted on the roaches of the pharohs. NIICCE, i like!!

This particular color/locality morph tends to have cream colored legs, but some mature males have ruby red legs! This is a female, but i will make a vid of a ruby leg soon

i uploaded two versions of the same movie to youtube. the first version is uploaded from a much larger wmv file, so only people with a good broadband connection should click on it. the second file is saved in a much more compact and smaller version of the WMV file. this will be "tolerable" for dialup people.... but it will still take a cool minute, as the small version is still ~2 megabytes (~10 minutes on a 28k modem if i figure correctly)

[UPLOADED FROM A 31MB WMV FILE]
[YOUTUBE]ZsVXWpr0ACY[/YOUTUBE]

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[YOUTUBE]7v9F7schV9E[/YOUTUBE]

 

[cacoseraph]

Ethmostigmus triogonopodus, "bluering leg centipede". This is a female that i have handled in the past, but she and all my other bluering leg cents got mean over the summer. Temperatures are just now dropping to where this species is tractable enough to handle.

A little about this species. They seem to be imported to the states, other NA countries, and euroland via Tanzania, Africa. This doesn't
necesarily mean they live in/only in tanzania. There might be another variation of this same species with yellowlegs that seems, to me, to
have much more potent venom. I almost think the dif in venoms could make them a dif subspecies or something, We shall see what all the experts say in the end.

In the video this centipede bites me a few times. The two previous times i had been bitten by this species i had pronounced local swelling and redness. The prior ~50-60 nothing happend. I was very interested in what happed with these bites. I am pretty sure she injected some venom into me... but nothing really happend. I am now curious to see what happens the next five or so times.

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[YOUTUBE]lGSOdH6ZwJI[/YOUTUBE]

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[YOUTUBE]rkzKw7aKrDo[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Stylopidae]

I've been handling this one for some time now. So far, she's been pretty docile and has 'faked me out' by prodding my skin with her maxillipeds and such. Even whipping around while on my hand and acting like she's going to bite. She's pretty easy to predict most of the time but still prone to exploring around and can be quite difficult to control at times, sometimes ending up where I don't really want her. I always make sure to clean off the floor and block the air vents properly before handling her to prevent any accidents.

 

[nuclear_zombies]

Thats coooooool!

Neat picture! I'm wondering how well the centipede can articulate the modified legs that his fangs are on. Can they move them independently of eachother? Also, are they used to rend and tear up prey?:? The terminal legs- is this an evolved defense mechanism where the back of the bug looks like the front? Can they use the terminal legs for anything, like say climbing out of it's tank? I'm getting my first Centipede in a couple of weeks here, I'm very interested in thier anatomy and behaviours. What wonderfully bizarre creatures!

 

[Stylopidae]

Two of the coolest handling pics I have:

 

[cacoseraph]

S. gigantea and heros cf arizonensis

i went to the 2007 Los Angeles Natural History Museum Bugfair and met up with a number of fellow board members and vendor peoples on Saturday May 19, 2007. it was very fun and i saw some stuff with my eyes that i hand previously only read about. i don't want to go into it too much on this GCH thread but you can read more about it here : [thread=93517]2007 Bugfair![/thread]

ftorres (francisco) had said earlier that he might let me play with his S. gigantea (sold as S. robusta) if i stopped by the Insect Adventures booth

this centipede was one of the most docile and tractable centipedes i have ever handled. it was just a tremendous pleasure. a decent crowed gathered and sort of waxed and waned for about 10 minutes while i was doing my thing. people asked questions and i tried to answer them as best as i could. it was pretty funny, cuz despite how wonderful the pede was behaving and the fact the museum halls were a very nice ~65-70*F i sweating like it was the middle of july and 100*f. heh.

thanks again to Earl, Neshan's (Nbond) cousin for taking the pictures and videos of us handling

Nbond and buthus both played with and/or held the gigantea for a bit. you can see them in action in the youtube

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My camera is broken and sometimes will not focus right. it is hard to tell from the little viewscreen on the back. sorry Neshan.

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the centipede was being such a sport i even did a few semi-silly things like flip it over and let it hold on to my hand and arm upside down and do some fairly restrictive restrained holds on it to show off specific body parts. it was very very cool. you are a lucky man, Francisco :worship:

zoom[/QUOTE]

Francisco also let me play with his huge Scolopendra heros cf arizonensis. this thing is a monster... even longer than the gigantea i think! it was like 10+"/25cm+!!

this is BY FAR the longest centipede i have ever free handled. it was easily 10"/25cm bodylength when it was at ~75% full extension. i bet it was pretty close to 11" at full extension

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when the pede was in a shorter, fatter relaxed position here after i used my hypnotic gaze power on it

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here the pede is in almost full extension for most of the latter part of it's body. this shows most of the body in its longest form and shows how i think this puppy could rock a 11" bodylength at full extension

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the heros was acting considerably more nervous than the gigantea. i even said i was going to put it down pretty soon cuz i thought it might bite me. then it did =P

i made a youtube for the gigantea and will make one for the heros pretty soon. i am having a bear of a time uploading the gigantea video though. so far only the tiny version has stuck.

[youtube]8oMnUma0F44[/youtube]

 

[P. Novak]

Great job Caco, Nbond and buthus for handling that Scolopendra gigantea! At one point it looked like you were handling a hamster because of the way it was picked up from the cage. Great vid, I can't wait for the next one!

 

[cacoseraph]

thanks Novak

oh yeah. i got three S. subspinipes mutilans from Insect Advetures. two yellow legs and a red legs

zoom

 

[P. Novak]

thanks Novak

oh yeah. i got three S. subspinipes mutilans from Insect Advetures. two yellow legs and a red legs

zoom

Great Additions, and let me guess, you already handled them . Oh wait, yup, already have the picture and all. Is there anything you haven't handled? :clap:

 

[cacoseraph]

Great Additions, and let me guess, you already handled them . Oh wait, yup, already have the picture and all. Is there anything you haven't handled? :clap:

i have a cbb S. subspinipes subspinipes/dehaani that is ~5"/13cm bl that i don't handle

i never handled any of my large S. s. s/dehaani or S. alternan when i had them

 

[P. Novak]

i have a cbb S. subspinipes subspinipes/dehaani that is ~5"/13cm bl that i don't handle

i never handled any of my large S. s. s/dehaani or S. alternan when i had them

I take it because of their potent venom, or because of your individuals attitude?

 

[cacoseraph]

I take it because of their potent venom, or because of your individuals attitude?

hmm. both-ish.

 

[P. Novak]

hmm. both-ish.

Good enough reason for me! Wait, one last question, so Scolopendra gigantea don't possess as potent venom as Scolopendra subspinipes?

 

[cacoseraph]

Good enough reason for me! Wait, one last question, so Scolopendra gigantea don't possess as potent venom as Scolopendra subspinipes?

i don't know, but i wouldn't be surprised if it was in the general neighborhood


edit:

all right the lofi version successfully uploaded

this is uploaded from a 14MB wmv file
[youtube]ncD2k1NiDfo[/youtube]

 

[Galapoheros]

Thanks for the pics Caco! That was cool. Looks like you had a lot of fun talking to people. It would be nice to have an S. gigantea some day. Don't know if I would trade a 10 inch heros pede for one even though they are hard to get. But I might change my mind if I saw an S. gigantea in person. How did the S. h. arizonensis bite work out? Maybe you did a bite report, I haven't looked. Thanks again for the pics.

 

[P. Novak]

EDIT: The video works now, and I feel stupid because it's the same one I saw just lofi version.

 

[Greg Pelka]

Caco! F*** big respect!

 

[ftorres]

Centipede handling

HEllo ALl,
HEy Caco, I am happy those Red heads find such a great home with you.

I am also so delighted for the show you put out on Saturday, all I can say is Thanks man!!!!

My respect to you on centipede handlig,trully amaizing,you make it seem so easy.:worship:

I am sorry for my Sc heros lack of manners,but I will grab him and have a serious conversation about bitting my friends :}

Lastly, I would like to thank the guys who took some time to stop by and introduce themselves, and I am sorry if I did not gave you the proper time talk to you all. I was very please to meet some of you both Saturday and Sunday.

Regards to all.
FT

 

[Savvo]

Wow

the pede was getting more and more agitated so i decided to try to and squeeze it a little between my fingers to slow it down... the second i started applying pressure the pede froze and placed his fangs on my skin... i squeezed a little more and it squeezed a little more... i let go and it let go.
it was actually quite cool

That is very cool dude. You were communicating with the pede in a way. Usually inverts just bite in my experience.

 

[Stylopidae]

Probably my favorite handling picture so far