Scolopendra polymorpha?

[Ranitomeya]

Went to my usual collecting spot and found some Scolopendra beneath some rocks. I've never seen them there before, but there was more rain this year and they were probably displaced from wherever they've been hiding during the past years of lower rainfall. Most of the ones I saw had varying amounts of blue, but I found and captured an adult that's mostly orange.

I only managed to catch two adults and one small juvenile since the rocks they were hiding under were surrounded by thick, tall grass.

 

[BobBarley]

Nice finds! I've been looking for these guys around my area with no luck yet. Good job! Do you mind me asking around where you found them?

 

[scorpanok]

I don't know what they are but they are beautiful

 

[BobBarley]

I don't know what they are but they are beautiful

Well, from what I understand, the only Scolopendra species that occurs in California are S. polymorpha.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Nice finds! I've been looking for these guys around my area with no luck yet. Good job! Do you mind me asking around where you found them?

These were found off of Del Puerto Canyon Road by Patterson.

 

[BobBarley]

These were found off of Del Puerto Canyon Road by Patterson.

Thank you! So they should be around my area as I'm pretty close to there. Ripon, near Modesto.

 

[Hisserdude]

Yeah those are all S.polymorpha, very nice finds!

 

[Staehilomyces]

Very cool centipedes! By the way, is the blue one an infant? It looks smaller than the other two.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Very cool centipedes! By the way, is the blue one an infant? It looks smaller than the other two.

The first one is about four inches in body length, the second is about five inches in body length, and the third is only about an inch in body length.

 

[Staehilomyces]

Ok. Are you expecting any significant colour change through development?

 

[Ranitomeya]

Ok. Are you expecting any significant colour change through development?

I have no idea. I haven't kept many centipedes and those that I have kept have always been mature already. The majority of the individuals I found in the area were more or less like the first one in coloration. Other juveniles of similar size were not the same color as the one I captured and tended to have at least some orange on the body.

Perhaps someone's who has bred and raised polymorpha can chime in and say whether or not they experience significant color changes as they grow and mature.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Collected a few more a short while ago. Three at the same location and several more further into the canyon in an area a few miles away where there are piles of loose rock. The second location seems to have smaller individuals and most of them had very contrasting striping patterns. I was only searching on the periphery of the piles where individual rocks had tumbled away to become little islands of hiding spots, so I very likely didn't see a full representation of what colors and patterns that population had.

Here's some of the variations--it's easy to see why they were given the specific epithet polymorpha. Anyone know why there's some variation in the length of the terminal legs? Is that sexual dimorphism or just another way polymorpha vary?


Orange with very dark blue stripes.


Lighter orange with more blue.


This one had some blue on the head unlike all the others I'd seen and collected.


This one is light enough blue that it's almost green with the light orange underneath. Not sure if the injury was during or before capture--I didn't notice it until I was home, but it hasn't stopped it from eating a large roach.


Most of the larger ones I saw looked like this. For reference, the diameter of the petri dish is about 5.5 inches or 14 cm.


One with more even coverage of blue pigment.


A darker blue one similar to the tiny polymorpha collected on the first trip. You can see that it has orange underneath all that dark blue.

A couple of them bolted and got to the floor when I was transferring them to the petri dish for pictures, so that was exciting. I'm glad I have smooth wood floors and not carpet--I can't imagine what it would have been like trying to capture them if they'd actually had a rough surface grip and run on.

Excuse the quality of the pictures. They're just iPhone pictures and my hands were a little unsteady after a few of them struck at my forceps repeatedly before running up them and straight for my hand. Those ones seemed rather high-strung and aggressive while the remainder were relatively docile--I didn't even grab them with forceps and was just levering them up for transfers.

 

[Staehilomyces]

Great pictures! And I just understood that Latin being "Polymorpha." So obvious, and yet I didn't realize. Also, what is that object lying next to the centipede in the second last picture? It has a mark similar to the injury on one of the other images.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Great pictures! And I just understood that Latin being "Polymorpha." So obvious, and yet I didn't realize. Also, what is that object lying next to the centipede in the second last picture? It has a mark similar to the injury on one of the other images.

That's just a piece of roach exoskeleton that it grabbed during the transfer to the petri dish.

 

[dakotanivens]

They are beautiful!

 

[BobBarley]

@Ranitomeya I know this is a really old thread, but are you able to post the polymorpha pics again? Photobucket sucks now lol.