# Centipede ID - South Africa



## Ice Cold Milk

hello, 
this centipede is 16-17cm, and wild caught in northeastern South Africa.  
I've had it for a year, and now all of a sudden i noticed that it has a clutch of eggs, so i'm very motivated to find out what it is! 

any help is appreciated.
-=ICM=-


----------



## Rick McJimsey

I'm going just by looks, but maybe _E.trigonopodus_?


----------



## Ice Cold Milk

the 2nd tergite overlaps the head (as far as I can tell)... 
perhaps that's a morphological trait?  *shrug*


----------



## peterbourbon

Hey,

Rick is right: It's an E. trigonopodus.

Regards
Turgut


----------



## beetleman

yup,that's what it is,i have 1 aswell had for sometime now it was sold to me as "black form bluering" awesome stocky pedes they are!


----------



## Satellite Rob

Thats 1 you never showed me before.I want some of the pedelings.Remenber 
whos your buddy.


----------



## Galapoheros

I had one, pretty cool.  Steven on this site had a really big one with bright solid blue legs, looked different from others I've seen.


----------



## Ice Cold Milk

are those red dots above the legs the spiracles??  (i see them on segment 3, 5, 7, 8)


----------



## peterbourbon

Hi,

yes those "dots" are the spiracles - and your speciman features one at the 7th segment & the terminal legs are of normal length, so it's _Ethmostigmus_.
Outer appearance and also distribution (very common species in Africa) points towards _Ethmostigmus trigonopodus_. 
By the way: There is no other Ethmostigmus-species occuring in Africa at all.

Regards
Turgut


----------



## Ice Cold Milk

Thanks, that's very helpful!

I read that max size on these is supposed to be 7" (17-18cm).  
The guy I got him from SWEARS he finds ones that are 35-45cm.  Taking into account his obvious truth-stretching, do you think that these may reach 20cm+?  Any captive kept ones that are that large?

-=ICM=-


----------



## peterbourbon

Hey,

take this guy as a possibility to gain a lot of money, just bid. And if he looses (that's obvious) he should pay you $1000. 

Anyway...I have never seen an _E. trigonopodus_ with 20cm BL, but I remember some hobbyists kept those big ones.

Especially the deep blue ones from Kenia grow quite big and bulky (It's the one on Steven's homepage).

I even don't believe in S. giganteas with 40cm BL (except I see a picture next to a ruler).

Regards
Turgut


----------



## Steven

It's the one on this page, second picture:
http://www.scolopendra.be/handling.php
_where i wanted to show,... do not handle these guys  _

quite big and bulky indeed, but surely not reaching 30 cm.


----------



## CodeWilster

Steven said:


> It's the one on this page, second picture:
> http://www.scolopendra.be/handling.php
> _where i wanted to show,... do not handle these guys  _


I recently ordered a few of these buggers, they should be here soon. So are they pretty bad biters?


----------



## zonbonzovi

I have one at about 4.5" BL and while "nervous" when removed from its cozy den, it has never attempted biting me while I was handling it.  I believe Cacoseraph has a pic of one straddling his nose.


----------



## CodeWilster

Lol of course! It's his avatar on SCABIES. It's either that or a "Neon Blue leg" (Scolopendra mirabilis). Anyway one (E. trigonopodus) came in the mail today and therefore I answered my own question. I went ahead and held it (took a video too). It's super mellow compared to my other pedes!


----------



## cacoseraph

here is the thing about trigo's.... the blue ones were nothing to get bit by but the yellow ones sucked so bad i got rid of mine.  only species that gave my lymphatic swelling... the lymph node in my armpit got so big i couldn't put my arm down all the way


----------



## CodeWilster

Wow that's interesting. Two of the 'same' species with very different venom effects. So that pede on your nose was a Trigo? I thought I read somewhere it was a S. mirabilis "Neon Blue Leg".


----------



## zonbonzovi

mmm...lymphatic swelling.  it has a sexy ring to it.  not to be medically fetishistic, but- any pix of the apple in your armpit?  i'm interested to see the physical effects of envenomation on someone who has "taken a few for the team".


----------



## cacoseraph

zonbonzovi said:


> mmm...lymphatic swelling.  it has a sexy ring to it.  not to be medically fetishistic, but- any pix of the apple in your armpit?  i'm interested to see the physical effects of envenomation on someone who has "taken a few for the team".


no, i suck :/

and i probably will never get bit by that species again.  really, i accomplished what i wanted with testing exotic/native centipede venom... i found a few species that seem to have minimal human reactivity.  now i am going to do some of the non-theraphosidae mygalomorphs (pretty much just native species)


----------



## Ice Cold Milk

Finally got a pic of her without disturbing her (i hope!)

I have no idea how far along these eggs are, i noticed her building a burrow about a month ago, and it was last week that I noticed eggs.


----------



## Ice Cold Milk

The eggs just hatched about 7 days ago (that's the first I noticed anyway, could have been a couple days earlier).  
They are now nymphs.  Is it the stage after this that they will be ready to go away from their mother?  (and this will be in about 4-6 weeks, right?)  

Temps are 28C, humidity in enclosure is quite high, although the side she occasionally hangs out on is dry, as in the picture.  

-=ICM=-
EDIT: added picture


----------



## zonbonzovi

Nice shot, Matt!  I don't recall seeing the indentations in the eggs in a photo before.  I assume that's where they emerge from?


----------

