# S. hardwickei mating



## peterbourbon (Oct 10, 2009)

Hey,

today I focused on a long-term-purpose, mating hardwickei. I don't know if it worked out, facing some strange occurencies in the world of pedes with an open end.

The first two specimen I picked up turned out as female and male though i personally know it's only quarter of the rent (one additional quarter goes to succesful mating, the other quarter goes to laying eggs and the last quarter on succesful hatches).

Here you can see some videos (and sorry you can't see much - it was incredibly difficult to spot their actions since they were usually hidden under the bark):

http://www.scolopendra.info/data/hw_mating.wmv

In fact i first tried out mating in a "blank" enclosure with only one hiding spot to figure out how they react - and if they are ready to mate.
This turned out as very interesting. First of all hardwickei seem to have "calming down sessions" where they signalize peace.
Both lay on each other. First the female began to vibrate with the antenna. After half an hour the male started to respond with antenna vibration movements.

After one hour both separated somehow lazily, probably not expecting any further dangers  and then standard mating behaviour started as you may have seen in S. heros. Female stimulates male terminal legs with antenna.

The main purpose is to let the male produce a sperm web and  place a spermatophore into the web.
As things always turn out complicated when I start to do anything, the male moved like it was spinning a web without success.
It just moved in the air as if it wanted to web. After another 30 min. i decided to put both pedes into a terrarium with substrate.
One minute after i rehoused the pedes, the male began to web. I couldn't see anything, only the webbing movements and the webbing organ coming out (including the web itself). The female was close to the males' anus with her head, waiting for him to finish.

Now it gets complicated. After the male finished he moved from the bark - the female speciman just followed the male and continued with stimulation. After 10 minutes both pedes separated - and everytime the male faced the female speciman it turned back fast as if all the mating process was finished.

Later on I decided to pick up the bark to check the sperm web. I couldn't see any spermatophore, but a sperm web:













Finally I'm not sure if the female picked it up after following the male under the bark or if the male couldn't produce a sperm web.
It still stays a mystery and i will find out if my female decides to produce a clutch after 8-10 months or not.

What I want to say at all (and not advertising my trial): Please be aware of the fact that it is of highest importance to breed centipedes. People seem to be always shy, afraid of loosing a rare species - maybe because of less experience in centipedes, but that is not relevant at all.
Please try, cause it's not impossible. I am really afraid of certain populations, especially S. hardwickei that is harvested like a fruit. There will be a day where we are stuck in keeping certain species, cause no one tried. Never give up, please - i want to encourage all the motivated centipede keepers to try and not be afraid of losing a speciman. Especially the ones who still keep some hardwickei.

If your trial failed, please don't be too shy to share your experiences. It helps everyone to learn.

Regards,
Turgut


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## Galapoheros (Oct 10, 2009)

Way to go Turgut!  That was awesome.  I bet it was a successful mating!  It DID look a lot like heros behavior, except heros aren't that nice to each other, also looked like slow motion compared to heros, ..not so nervous looking.  Hope to see pics later of babies.  Maybe SatRob has something going but maybe he just hasn't said anything


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## peterbourbon (Oct 10, 2009)

Hey Todd,

thanks alot. 

I'm sure it was 80% luck, cause i had another mating trial in past with different specimen and it almost ended up in a desaster - maybe two females (the bigger one bit the smaller one and both survived, cause i separated them immediately), but i couldn't choose since i only had two specimen and already suspected them to be two females.

I remember Steven also tried to mate them, but he ended up in losing one hardwickei.

In fact S. hardwickei are very nervous and aggressive and usually it doesn't end up nice. WC specimen are unpredictable, cause even if you keep male and female it may be that the female is already fertilized from the wild and hence does not let any male coming closer.

But in fact I'm sure it isn't that hard if you put together the right specimen. I find it even more challenging to provide them best climatical conditions for egg laying. I haven't seen any hardwickei clutch until now - and I still doubt the rumour about a UK guy who had a succesful clutch - as long as I don't see pictures. 

Regards
Turgut


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## Galapoheros (Oct 10, 2009)

I think I remember a thread from Steven, saying he lost one.  I don't know about hardwickei mating of course.  I've seen the same heros pedes mate more than once, but still haven't seen eggs from all the breeding I saw this year, prob in the Spring.  Maybe those hardwickei will mate more than once if they have the chance, but once is good enough haha, maybe not worth the risk.  I think I asked you this before, but can't remember what you said ...do you know if there are a lot of rocks around where these can be found?  Is it real wet or is there a dry season in their natural habitat?  Are they found in hilly and mountainous areas?  Finally, do you know the temperature ranges in a year where they are from?, I've wondered what the seasons are like.  I guess I could look in my world atlas, but I still wouldn't know if they hang around mountainous areas looking in there.


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## peterbourbon (Oct 10, 2009)

There is not much information about specific habitate, but I have been told they are living in scrubby jungles, not in extremely dense vegetation, often found after rain periods. It's very very hot where hardwickei occur - and they are not found in mountain areas, more in flat regions.

They are living with hot temperatures all the year and also go through dry and rainy periods. I guess the goal is to play a little bit with humidity and rain periods in a terrarium. I provide heat all the time and made the experience they are sensible to colder climate. They are very good and constant eaters, so I suppose their digestive system usually works fast.

I'm still experimenting a bit and maybe give another try in 3 or 4 months since i know i have a 100% sure male now. 

I guess keeping them in small containers does not help to play with climate, so i usually stick to big terrariums where i have more possibilities to experiment a little bit with preferred areas. Usually they always hide under a heating lamp and avoid the mild-tempered places.  

Interesting you are still waiting for your heros to lay eggs. Maybe Scolopendra need a long preparation period until they lay eggs. That would explain why they can save sperm through several molts.

I know that Steven bred S. subspinipes "chinese tigerlegs" over 2 generations - but never asked him how long it always took for a female to produce eggs after succesful mating. 

Regards,
Turgut


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## dtasrt_lk (Oct 11, 2009)

Very interesting thread. Good luck with the breeding Turgut! They are so beautiful :drool:


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## ophiophagus (Oct 11, 2009)

Great Job! I completely agree about the importance of figuring out the best way to breed all centipedes in a captive situation. I have plans for my own breeding trials with some more common species. I can't wait to give it a try and post the results. Good luck and keep up the good luck


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## SAn (Oct 11, 2009)

peterbourbon said:


> Maybe Scolopendra need a long preparation period until they lay eggs. That would explain why they can save sperm through several molts.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Turgut


In tiger legs and s.subspinipes i had mated at early April and had eggs in september and july. (well we all know tiger legs lay in September)
A dehaani from hong kong that i had and one specimen from another guy had eggs in February. (Mine was mated previous year march, his was wc)

So maybe they wait proper time of the year.. or the best conditions in the place they are at the time.


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## micheldied (Oct 11, 2009)

congrats on getting a male and a female.
good luck on getting eggs!


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## KyuZo (Oct 11, 2009)

Great job Turgut, thanks for sharing all the details with us:worship:.


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## Androctonus_bic (Oct 13, 2009)

Hi Turgut; 

Today I don't have nothing to aport here, just my reverences and a big open mouth.:worship: 

I hope it will go well! Please keep us informed...and good luck!

This pioner fact makes the hobby grows day by day!

Cheers
Carles


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## peterbourbon (Oct 14, 2009)

Hi,

thanks for the congratulations.



Androctonus_bic said:


> This pioner fact makes the hobby grows day by day!


We should never forget that it's not important to be the first one, but to keep this issue going on. That's why i'll provide my 100% male to Steven for mating purposes if it turns out he only got females.
Hope the US (especially Satellite Rob) will also succeed in mating. It could be a big step for the US hobby.

Regards,
Turgut


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## Androctonus_bic (Oct 15, 2009)

Turgut,

That are a very good words and better way of think! 
I hope all the people thinks like you and make the desinterested thinks you did with your male S. hardwickei. This is the well done things!

Now, you are giving a posible popularization of S. hardwickei en the hobby, and all the hobbytist must to be glad for it!

Best wishes for you, Steven and Rob!

Cheers
Carles


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## peterbourbon (Nov 30, 2009)

Hi,

and another couple.  How romantic. :drool: 







After letting them together for 9(!) hours without any interest and action they began mating ritual 30 minutes ago. Crazy species!

Regards
Turgut


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## BiologicalJewels (Nov 30, 2009)

Turgut, thank you very much for this posting. I hope all goes well (in some months of course).
I do have yet another question to ask, how do you sex these guys? Are you just putting them together and waiting for a certain reaction?
Or did you just have to wait for him to produce that sperm web?

Also, what size is the mating couple?


Thanks again both for posting this and in advance for your reply.

Oscar R


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## Galapoheros (Nov 30, 2009)

Awesome!  It must feel good to get a back-up mating with more pedes!  Now I'm looking forward to reading, "Hey, I found eggs today!"


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## peterbourbon (Nov 30, 2009)

Hey,

sperm webs are usually only produced after mating, so they are something like the "final curtain" for all the precedent mating rituals.

Producing and picking up spermatophore is only about 20-40 minutes (depending on species). Mating rituals and calming down phases can even last 12 hours.

The quickest mating I ever witnessed was S. morsitans. Everything (including ritual and picking up the spermatophore) took 20 minutes in total. 

S. hardwickei seems to need a longer ritual before mating begins.

It's hard to put it into words, but I prepared all hardwickei-matings with more or less complex temperature/humidity changes before - never had success by just putting two of them together and hope. I even saw a female biting a male - so this is no evidence for correct sexing.

I usually judge on very hard noticable behaviour after putting them together. Sometimes the female only tries for 2-3 seconds - and then again in an hour for maybe 5 seconds. It's always important to watch their behaviour very attentively. In all cases (and even in all species I succesfully mated) the male was the spoiling part. Against all theories I must say that males are often touchy, nervous and permanently escape somewhere.
It's NOT up to the male, but it depends on the motivation and lust of the female to have a succesful mating. If a female looses motivation after one hour it may be that you have to try a few months later.
If a female is in urgent need to reproduce it will wait and try and wait and try until she gets what she wants, even for hours. 
If the male counterpart is not convinced to take his ass off the sofa and turn off the TV the mating will never succeed. 

Still much to be explored. I experiment alot and I don't care if a speciman dies from mutual aggressions - better than not trying. No risk, no fun. 

Regards
Turgut


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## micheldied (Nov 30, 2009)

cant wait til you get eggs.
keep us updated.


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