# Sexing house centipedes (Scutigeromorpha)



## peterbourbon (Jan 28, 2010)

Hi,

though a lot of people may already know it, I thought I'd share some basic information of external sexual dimorphisms on house centipedes (Scutigeromorpha), coming along with pictures.
I know, those interesting animals rarely enter hobby (especially the giant ones), but maybe those who still keep some can use this information for
mating purposes.

First of all: No gassing needed. 
You can easily see the genital region when you flip over the pede and take a look at the distal part.

Both males and females have gonopods (in opposite to Scolopendromorpha), but males have more or less degenerated remains as
you can see on the following pic (loosely coupled gonopods at the genital region):







Female Scutigeromorpha bare two gonopods that appear a little bit "fused" together - they look like fangs of bees or something like that:







The main purpose of gonopods is to control and hold the egg - hence it makes sense females still use gonopods in some Chilopoda-genera.
It still remains a mystery why only Scolopendromorpha-males bare those gonopod-remains and females don't show any morphological signs of gonopods.
Maybe male Scolopendromorpha misuse it to control webbing, but that's only a guess.

If you keep a female house centipede go sure you don't change substrate completely when rehousing. Scutigeromorpha don't curl around a clutch, but burrow each of their eggs into the substrate (They even "tape" their eggs with substrate). So it's always a surprise if you see young house centipedes wandering in
your enclosure.

The provided pics are from specimen of _Thereuopoda cf. longicornis_:







Some of you may know those - the are pretty common in South-Eastern Asia.

Regards
Turgut


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## Travis K (Jan 28, 2010)

I like the bigger OW sp, the NW ones are nice to.  have kept a few and they get easy to sex.


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## Galapoheros (Jan 28, 2010)

Great pics!  Thanks for taking the time, interesting to see the difference there.  Do you plan on trying to get babies?


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## peterbourbon (Jan 29, 2010)

Hi,

@Travis
Yeah, you've told me a while ago in the chat you kept those. How long did they survive? Been told that they are very sensitive, but couldn't experience anything like that so far...though they often drop their legs when they feel threatened. Have had any babies so far? 
I remember another guy (DavidRS?) had babies in past - there was a thread around, but can't find it at the moment.

@Galapoheros
I'll try to mate, yes.  

Regards
Turgut


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## Travis K (Jan 29, 2010)

peterbourbon said:


> Hi,
> 
> @Travis
> Yeah, you've told me a while ago in the chat you kept those. How long did they survive? Been told that they are very sensitive, but couldn't experience anything like that so far...though they often drop their legs when they feel threatened. Have had any babies so far?
> ...


Yes they are very Humidity Sensitive.  I am going to be getting some more and keep then in a bigger enclosure with deeper substrate that has more hiding places.  Although the ones in the US are little they are very fascinating.  I will try and link some more info I found on them as it can be difficult to find online.

Regards,


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## szappan (Jan 31, 2010)

Wow!  very cool info - thanks Turgut!  :clap:


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## Androctonus_bic (Feb 11, 2010)

Wow very good work!!!! And very well documented!!!:worship::worship::worship:


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