Scolopendra hainanum breeding

[Scolopendr]

Good day everyone!

Recently I bought a pair of Scolopendra hainanum (Chinese tiger leg) and now I am preparing for their breeding. I checked their sex: the male really has no stripes. Now I would like to clarify how they should be kept, what to feed and how to stimulate reproduction? Are there any fundamental differences from other centipedes species?

I read that they should be kept at a temperature of 20-25C and don't like high humidity. And it is also interesting, from what size are they capable of reproduction (now they are about 12-13 cm)?

I don't want to hurry, I want to hold them first year and fatten them well... I think this time will be enough for preparation and discussion.

 

[NYAN]

The male will be mature at around 4-5 inches (12cm) body length. The female will be mature at an inch or two (15-18cm) larger than the male.

 

[Curiosipede]

Hainanum dont like humidity? Today i learned...... weird

 

[Bill S]

The male will be mature at around 4-5 inches (12cm) body length. The female will be mature at an inch or two (15-18cm) larger than the male.

Glad to hear that. That's about the size of the pair I have, and I'd been holding off breeding them because I thought they needed to be a bit larger.

 

[Bill S]

Hainanum dont like humidity? Today i learned...... weird

That surprises me too. Hainan is an island in the tropics (South China Sea) and they get a lot of rain. (Well a lot of rain compared to the desert I live in. 60 to 80 inches per year compared to the 10 or 11 inches annual rain we get in the Tucson area.) I would have anticipated the S. hainanum needing fairly high moisture, or at least humidity.

 

[Curiosipede]

Yea ive been keeping my hainanum humid for over a year. None have ever developed any mycosis, nor had molt issues

 

[Bill S]

As a result of a little encouragement from this discussion, I put my pair of S hainanum together - and they started courtship right away. They mated, hopefully successfully. They are back in their own cages now, and I'm fattening the female up in hopes of eggs/babies.

 

[Bill S]

A follow-up to the message above - The female dug into the substrate in June and remains hidden as of today (October 18). She's under a piece of plastic shelter partially buried in the substrate, and I can see her if I lift the shelter a little. Last night the first of the babies emerged - four of them about 1" long. There are many more still with her, and I'll wait for them to emerge before catching and counting them.

 

[Outpost31Survivor]

A follow-up to the message above - The female dug into the substrate in June and remains hidden as of today (October 18). She's under a piece of plastic shelter partially buried in the substrate, and I can see her if I lift the shelter a little. Last night the first of the babies emerged - four of them about 1" long. There are many more still with her, and I'll wait for them to emerge before catching and counting them.

Congrats!

 

[Nicholas Rothstein]

Success! Now if only I could get my pedes to mate instead of attacking each other.

 

[Bill S]

My breeding cage is a large terrarium with a screen divider in the middle. I leave the prospective pair in the cage (on separate sides of the divider) for a couple days prior removing the divider. So far I've only had one time when the female attacked it's would-be mate, and in that case I think I introduced them too soon.

 

[Scoly]

Good luck with the breeding. Sounds like a well considered approach you have. However, may I heartily recommend against handling this species, it has one of the worst bites of any pede. I know one person who went into anaphylactic shock, and another who lost the end of his finger from S.hainanum bites!

 

[NYAN]

I know one person who went into anaphylactic shock, and another who lost the end of his finger from S.hainanum bites!

I think I know who you are referring to in the first case. It sounded more like a bad reaction than anaphylaxis. Anyway, I agree that the venom is very terrible.

 

[Nicholas Rothstein]

My breeding cage is a large terrarium with a screen divider in the middle. I leave the prospective pair in the cage (on separate sides of the divider) for a couple days prior removing the divider. So far I've only had one time when the female attacked it's would-be mate, and in that case I think I introduced them too soon.

I haven't thought of that, I will try it out the net time I attempt a pairing. Wanna share pics of the screen divider?

 

[Scoly]

I think I know who you are referring to in the first case. It sounded more like a bad reaction than anaphylaxis. Anyway, I agree that the venom is very terrible.

Yeah, there was that video doing the rounds earlier this year about a study on centipede venom. The study was about S.mutilans, but in the video they drop a S.hainanum onto a live mouse and the thing dies in about 30 seconds.

One of my hainanum plings threw a bite at a cricket once just because it was getting annoyed when it wasn't hungry and the cricket flipped onto its back and was convulsing and stopped a couple of minutes later stone dead. I've never seen the venom of any other pede do that to an insect!

 

[Nicholas Rothstein]

Real study's instead of those anecdotes investigated the composition of venom and comaprenit to others.

 

[Bill S]

Real study's instead of those anecdotes......

Absolutely. A scientific approach would be far more meaningful.

 

[Bill S]

I haven't thought of that, I will try it out the net time I attempt a pairing. Wanna share pics of the screen divider?

I might try to get pictures later, but for the moment maybe a quick description will help. I started with a 29 gallon long aquarium. I inserted two wooden frames in the middle with about a gap between them just wide enough to allow the divider to slide into the slot. They are held in place with silicon glue, so they can be easily removed at some time in the future if necessary. This leaves a slot at the top that the divider can be dropped into. I made the divider from two squares of thin hard board with a window cut out in the middle. I glued the two pieces of hard board together with screen sandwiched in between. One of the problems that came up was that this leave a slight gap at the top when the lid is put in place, but this was easy to remedy with a strip of wood cut to fit that gap.

One problem that still remains is that the whole lid has to come off at once. This seems easy enough when you put the first centipede in the cage, but I have had centipedes try to crawl up the screen and out when I lift the lid to put the second centipede in. My resolution for this so far is to have a hiding place in each side of the tank that the centipede can go under. (You'll need something like this anyway for spermatophore deposit.) I put the first centipede in and wait for it to settle down under a propped flat rock before opening to put in the second centipede. You'll have to use a similar strategy when you remove them after mating.

For transferring centipedes to and from cages I've found that cardboard tubes with a capped end work very well. Centipedes readily run up into such a tube, and can quickly and easily be shaken out of the tube to put them in a cage.

 

[Nicholas Rothstein]

I might try to get pictures later, but for the moment maybe a quick description will help. I started with a 29 gallon long aquarium. I inserted two wooden frames in the middle with about a gap between them just wide enough to allow the divider to slide into the slot. They are held in place with silicon glue, so they can be easily removed at some time in the future if necessary. This leaves a slot at the top that the divider can be dropped into. I made the divider from two squares of thin hard board with a window cut out in the middle. I glued the two pieces of hard board together with screen sandwiched in between. One of the problems that came up was that this leave a slight gap at the top when the lid is put in place, but this was easy to remedy with a strip of wood cut to fit that gap.

One problem that still remains is that the whole lid has to come off at once. This seems easy enough when you put the first centipede in the cage, but I have had centipedes try to crawl up the screen and out when I lift the lid to put the second centipede in. My resolution for this so far is to have a hiding place in each side of the tank that the centipede can go under. (You'll need something like this anyway for spermatophore deposit.) I put the first centipede in and wait for it to settle down under a propped flat rock before opening to put in the second centipede. You'll have to use a similar strategy when you remove them after mating.

For transferring centipedes to and from cages I've found that cardboard tubes with a capped end work very well. Centipedes readily run up into such a tube, and can quickly and easily be shaken out of the tube to put them in a cage.

Thanks for the description. I am going to build something like that when I have the time. Hopefully, all things go well.