Moroccan Scolopendra sp ID

[Abdulkarim Elnaas]

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9659494

Found this gnarly looking centipede on INaturalist. Does anyone have any ideas about species?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Greasylake]

I think it might a Ethmostigmus trigonopodus color morph, or at least I'm pretty sure it's from that genus.

 

[CHLee]

I think it might a Ethmostigmus trigonopodus color morph, or at least I'm pretty sure it's from that genus.

Look at the spiracles, it’s a Scolopendra sp.

 

[NYAN]

It’s probably unidentified just like many centipedes are... whatever it is, its beautiful and I want one.

 

[LeFanDesBugs]

I'm pretty sure it can be S.cingulata. Nice colormorph by the way.
The body structure matches quite well.

 

[Abdulkarim Elnaas]

I'm pretty sure it can be S.cingulata. Nice colormorph by the way.
The body structure matches quite well.

If you are right, then that would make this guy an amazing specimen of S.cingulata.

I lived in Libya (also in North Africa) and they only came in like one shade of yellow.

I wonder if this little dude is just a weirdo (like the leucistic robins that pop up every once in a blue moon) or if that is a common color for the S.cingulata over there.

 

[Scoly]

I've seen photos of these from Morocco too, amazing colours! The guy even offered to send me the coordinates where he'd found it. He was of the opinion it was a cingulata too. It's definitely not an Ethmostigmus.

S. cingulata has a massive range, all around the Mediterranean sea and stretching east to Pakistan at least, and there are many colour morphs, even though the only one we see in the trade tends to be the Spanish tiger version which looks almost identical to S. polymorpha tigger variety.

Some cingulata have ridiculously fat terminals also. I remember lifting a bit of wood having not seen a centipede up close in many years, to see a hole with two massive terminals sticking out, and my guess was that we were facing a 7" monster, I couldn't believe it as that was Italy. Anyway, we got it out and it was 4.5" tops. The cingulata from Spain still have relatively chunky terminals, but not as fat as the Italian ones.

 

[Scoly]

Actually, taking a closer look at that and my own cingulata sitting right next to me I can see the terminals are different, and the pre-terminals are very different too. In the Moroccan specimen pictured, the pre-terminals are distinctly different from the rest of the legs, whereas in my specimen they are identical.

Looking at a thread of cingulata varieties here http://arachnoboards.com/threads/scolopendra-cingulata-varieties.128556/ it seems that some do have pre-terminal legs which differ slightly from the rest, whereas in others it's the same (but that thread already has one possible bad id, the beast from croatia is likely S. dalmatica, which I also have )

But none of those come close to the extent to which the pre-terminals differ on the specimen from Morocco. They almost look like terminals.

So it's definitely quite distinct from anything else I've seen, but that's not to say it's a new species. If they breed and produce fertile offspring then they are technically the same species. So if it is cingulata is not surprising because assuming they don't cross the straits of Gibraltar very often, then Morocco is a the very tip of the cingulata range in one direction (and Spain is another) which would explain why they came to look so different.

 

[LawnShrimp]

Lovely specimen. I agree that it is S. cingulata or a very similar species of Scolopendra.

 

[LeFanDesBugs]

Very interesting @Scoly. Good points all along.
I'd just like to add that cingulata isn't supposed to be plain brown. The coloration varies greatly between locales. Some specimen are pitch black with red legs, some are yellow and banded, some are dark, olive brown, and some even have mint legs (true green mint color )