# Alipes questions



## Elytra and Antenna (Jan 31, 2006)

Alipes questions
1. Sources of info on which species are found in Tanzania? I've seen the grandidieri labeling on some sites and am curious on the source or if there was an actual specimen sent for ID.
2. Has anyone seen a definite adult molt?
3. Has anyone had 1 female produce more than 2 batches of babies?


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## Randolph XX() (Jan 31, 2006)

not quite sure, but i'll throw in a list of names and let Lord Steven sort it out
Alipes appendiculatus Pocock 1896 
Alipes calcipes Cook 1897
Alipes crotalus (Gerstaecker 1854)
Alipes grandidieri grandidieri (H. Lucas 1864) 
Alipes grandidieri integer Cook 1897
Alipes multicostis intermedius Attems 1911
Alipes multicostis multicostis Imhoff 1854
???
from
http://homepage3.nifty.com/petspets/pede/centi/alipes1.html
a Jp site


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## Steven (Jan 31, 2006)

1. according to Attems the only Tanzanian spec. of Alipes is A.grandidieri
other specie occur in south and west africa. (keys to the specie can be found in "Das Tierreich" Myriapoda - Scolopendromorpha Attems 1930)

2. what's your definition of definite adult molt ?

3. yes


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## Stylopidae (Jan 31, 2006)

I think Orin means an ultimate molt, like in Ts.


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## bistrobob85 (Jan 31, 2006)

I've looked around on googles images to see if i could get any pics of the species of alipes you talked about and i couldnt see a single one of them, hehe... What makes the genus alipes different from the other scolopendromorphs?!?!


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## cacoseraph (Jan 31, 2006)

bistrobob85 said:
			
		

> I've looked around on googles images to see if i could get any pics of the species of alipes you talked about and i couldnt see a single one of them, hehe... What makes the genus alipes different from the other scolopendromorphs?!?!


ooh ooh!

check this out!!!

pic coming:






they are commonly called "feather tails"







they can RATTLE those things... they sound like baby rattlers to me!

aside from the obvious, i believe the moderately heavy keeling on their tergites is er, important


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## bistrobob85 (Jan 31, 2006)

Thanks Cacoseraph, now thats a pretty obvious difference!!!! What are the ''feathertails'' used for?!?! Just rattling or either  mating/digging/walking/hunting...


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## cacoseraph (Jan 31, 2006)

bistrobob85 said:
			
		

> Thanks Cacoseraph, now thats a pretty obvious difference!!!! What are the ''feathertails'' used for?!?! Just rattling or either  mating/digging/walking/hunting...


they shake them when i poke them... some kind of defensive noise, maybe?

i don't think they use them to dig, seeing them in real life, they look kind of fragile

oh, i know one specimen i have (or had...) has a very tiny feather... like it's regenerating. so maybe they attract predator's attention away from the body of the centipede, kind of like some lizard tails

i haven't seen them use them to hunt, but my alipes seem pretty secretive, so i rarely see them period


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## Elytra and Antenna (Jan 31, 2006)

Steven said:
			
		

> 1. according to Attems the only Tanzanian spec. of Alipes is A.grandidieri
> other specie occur in south and west africa. (keys to the specie can be found in "Das Tierreich" Myriapoda - Scolopendromorpha Attems 1930)
> 
> 2. what's your definition of definite adult molt ?
> ...


1. Thanks for the info, it's for an Alipes reproduction article for Invertebrates-Magazine. Alipes species is fine but a definite name is better. I could send you a draft if you would like to make suggestions.

2. I haven't seen an adult molt in this species and I have had possible and definite adult(s) for over two years without a molt-- a female that produces young and then later molts would be the only definite adult molt. 

3. I'm guessing you had a female produce 3 or more multiple, successive clutches? With or without remating? Do you (or whoever had a single female reproduce more than twice) have general or specific time periods recorded? For example: 1st clutch 6-17-04, 2nd 1-27-05 .


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## Steven (Feb 1, 2006)

1.
i don't have much experience in breeding Alipes,... so i guess i can't help you out much with the article. only had some laying eggs,..
no offspring,.. yet,... currently one of my Alipes is around a bunch of foetus.

i can only give you the locations of the other spec. of Alipes according to Attems (1930):

Alipes multicostis
= Cameroon, Nigeria, along the Gold-coast to Sierra Leone

Alipes crotalus
= South Africa

Alipes appendiculatus
= Zambia, Zaïre, Uganda

Alipes calcipes
= Angola, Congo, Zaïre

Alipes grandidieri
= East Africa, Tanzania, Sansibar

i've found some notes on the subspecies of A.grandidieri
A.grandidieri grandidieri and A.grandidieri integer
A.g.integer has location data only Daressalam (Tanzania)
the subspecie only differs with the shape of the tibia of the ultimate leg.
the ventral side of the tibia of A.g.integer is not detached with a cut on the edge of it's "flag",... A.g.grandidieri "flag" should have a small cut on that edge on the underside. 
will try to post an illustration 
(which would explain it better)

there's gonna be a new catalogue of centipedes of the world later this year,... which should let us know if these still are valid or not.

2.
i haven't seen ANY molts of my Alipes while i checked on them,... so can't help you with that either.

3.
Vincent had some on 04-30-05 and 12-25-05,.. maybe he can give ya some more info on that.


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