Not really. or the first few instars of most species they have a bright juvenile pattern but lose that after a while. Once they have adult coloration it can be hard to tell if a centipede is sexually mature or a large juvenile. Centipedes also keep growing throughout their lives and 2 mature adults can vary greatly in size. Localitites make it tricky too, because dark tiger rubripes might get bigger or smaller than the usual tiger, which itself is still bigger than most rubripes.
He's about 15 cm body length (give or take a few centimetres) terminal legs are probably about 2-3cm long and antennae are a tiny bit longer than 2cm
Really? I haven't heard of that many incidents of sexual cannibalism with pedes.
Agreed, despite their ferocity, 'pede breeding is safer for the animals than T breeding. But if one partner had to be eaten, it would be the smaller one, and males tend to be somewhat smaller despite a general lack of dimorphism. Most captive mating successes result in the survival of both partners, but if the female is feeling aggressive, especially in the wild, I don't doubt she'd take a snap at the hopeful male.
I don't think you really can overfeed a pede. They will simply stop eating once they've had enough and leave the rest of whatever they were feeding on behind for you to clean up. Also I've noticed many pedes are severely underfed when you get them from the seller, probably because most people can't tell the feeding state of a pede. The S. hainanum I got recently was super thin and ate 3 crickets the first night I got him and then another 4 the next night until he was finally in (what I think) was an acceptable shape.
They do that usually when they feel a bit unsafe eating out in the open. They raise the prey up and then use the rest of their legs to walk into a safe place, with their prey lifted off the ground.
good to know. I've got a Cormocephalus which is really skinny right now so I'll try bumping him up in size. Pretty sure it's because it just moulted and they don't really come to the surface much where the crickets are
I've seen several large pedes in the wild (Costa Rica, South Africa) and most of them, as far as I could tell, were actually doing quite well. I was actually surprised at their, uh, "completeness" if you want. Usually no missing legs or anything. Tergites and sternites were usually chipped and damaged in some places but apart from that they looked to be in very nice condition. Pretty fat too, most of them.
