# Centipede Breeding Discussion Thread



## Stylopidae (Mar 8, 2007)

Thought I'd condense all breeding discussion down to one thread.

Here's my breeding report of S. polymorpha.

Another breeding report of S. subspinpes...not mine.

Comments and suggestions are welcome


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## Stylopidae (Mar 31, 2007)

A couple of the better pictures of my second failed breeding attempt with S. polymorpha. I'm fairly certian they're the same gender, and I'm calling that Gender A for now since there's no way of knowing if they're male or female.


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## 8+) (Mar 31, 2007)

Did they attack each other?


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## bistrobob85 (Mar 31, 2007)

I'm planning on breeding my Ethmostigmus Trigonopodus ''Yellow legs'' this year since i have three great doing adults but i was wondering, can i breed a centipede that lacks an antenna?!?!

 phil.


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## Stylopidae (Mar 31, 2007)

8+) said:


> Did they attack each other?



Kind of yes, and kind of no. One went up to the other and started investigating the rear of the other and it was promptly grabbed with the other specimen's terminators.

Unfortunately, these are the only two decent pictures I have of the process 

As for breeding one that's missing an antennae, I wouldn't know. You could try it because they might still have some sensory abilities with whatever they have left.


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## Galapoheros (Apr 1, 2007)

Here's an old thread but my pics were wiped out when my old ISP died.  I'll try to dig up the pics later.  From what I saw, it looked like the male could use a place to crawl through to spin a web and make a "web tunnel" that the female can follow him through it.  He put the spermataphore at the bottom of the web cave/tunnel.  

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=66702&referrerid=4911


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## Stylopidae (Apr 1, 2007)

Galapoheros said:


> Here's an old thread but my pics were wiped out when my old ISP died.  I'll try to dig up the pics later.  From what I saw, it looked like the male could use a place to crawl through to spin a web and make a "web tunnel" that the female can follow him through it.  He put the spermataphore at the bottom of the web cave/tunnel.
> 
> http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=66702&referrerid=4911



I chose a rock that looked like it had a tunnel carved underneath.

Could you elaborate on what the male might need?

Do you think I have two seperate genders?

These are the only two breeding size centipedes of this species I have, so any attempts I make at breeding have to be carefully monitored to ensure the saftey of the specimens.

Maybe once I get more specimens, I'll take more risks but not until I can afford it.


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## Galapoheros (Apr 1, 2007)

I got pretty lucky.  The male looked really scared at first and, of course, I wasn't sure it was a male.  I'll dig up that picture of the web tunnel, it can tell you what you might need better than I can.  Might take me a while though.  Maybe more rocks in there would help, maybe 2 or 3 and it might work better if you overlapped them a little over the rock you already have in there so they can hide and feel safe until they can "figure out the mood".  I don't know, just some ideas.  When I put the two together that eventually mated, it looked like one was going to get eaten at first.


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## Galapoheros (Apr 2, 2007)

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/show...eferrerid=4911

Found some old pics of the pedes mating.  The last pic is of the web tunnel he spun.  Pretty weird.


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## hibludij (Apr 3, 2007)

can a female centipede lay eggs without mating with a male, like stick insects and some other animals? cause my sisters biology teacher told her, that it is posible, when she told him that my cingulata had layed eggs.


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## Galapoheros (Apr 3, 2007)

I don't think this has been cleared up 100% yet  ...the parthenogenisis thing.  I have many baby pedes from last year.  I'm going to try and be patient, raise some to adult and see what happens.  It's really not a lot of work so, waiting isn't really an issue.  I don't need as many as I have (50+) so I think I may trim down to around 15, maybe 20.  I'm trying to wait for at least one more molt.


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## bistrobob85 (Apr 3, 2007)

As for me, well i've had my two colonies of adult sc.s.mutilans ( red legs and yellow legs separated ) since August and they still haven't produced anything yet... They're very well fed and kept in groups of 4 in large bins with more dark hiding spots than centipedes and i still haven't gotten anything from them. I recently noticed that three of them have blocked their hide spots with substrate... could that finally be it?!?! I'll keep you posted on those...

 phil.


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## 8+) (Apr 4, 2007)

I have four of the Vietnamese S. subspinipes. One of them is definitely a juvenile, the other three are in the 6-7" range.

How big in general do these guys need to be to be considered sexually mature. Are there things to look for other than size?

I've read that once their about 60% max length, they should be mature. But, I can't seem to find a consensus on that. Is the average full grown length around 8.5" or more like 10"?

Also read that the male might be more slender and have longer terminal legs, but I can't tell any difference in mine. I suppose those differences will be more pronounced as they grow larger? Should I wait at least another molt?


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## Brian S (Apr 4, 2007)

If you can get to this point, most of the battle is over 






And if you dont disturb her too much you will get this

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## 8+) (Apr 4, 2007)

Brian S said:


> If you can get to this point, most of the battle is over


Yes Brian, but it's everything leading up to that, that I need help with! :wall: 

Did you breed her, or acquire her gravid?


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## Stylopidae (Apr 4, 2007)

8+) said:


> I have four of the Vietnamese S. subspinipes. One of them is definitely a juvenile, the other three are in the 6-7" range.
> 
> How big in general do these guys need to be to be considered sexually mature. Are there things to look for other than size?
> 
> ...



I've heard of Scolopendra heros complex pedes dropping eggs at four inches.

I've also been told that the physical characteristics you mentioned are also not 100% reliable.

Of course, the pedes also need to be near each other in terms of size.

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## 8+) (Apr 5, 2007)

Cheshire said:


> I've also been told that the physical characteristics you mentioned are also not 100% reliable.


Yeah, I've heard that it's quite a bit less than 100%, but at least its a starting point.



Cheshire said:


> Of course, the pedes also need to be near each other in terms of size.


I guess that's common sense with these little monsters!

Do all scolopendra make a sperm web? At least subspinipes does right?

I think I'll make sure they're well fed and give them a try.


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## hibludij (Apr 6, 2007)

has anyone ever tried to put two pedes in the same enclouser and put in some kinda net thingy(with glass on top so they cant climbe over) to seperate them so they can see and smell (whatever they do with the antenas) each other but canot atack each other and then watch the reactions to figure out if they are hostile or atracted to each other?


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## 8+) (Apr 7, 2007)

Maybe just a perforated divider? Sounds like a good idea.


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## hibludij (Apr 7, 2007)

I was thinking of something like this:


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## 8+) (Apr 7, 2007)

Does seem like a better way to go, than just tossing them together and hoping for the best. I would think someone has tried this before?

I would even think it possible that if they were a pair, the male might build his sperm web before even removing the barrier.


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## bistrobob85 (Apr 7, 2007)

Hibludij, you'll have to make those holes VERY SMALL!!!! Those guys can go through very, very small holes... I'm not so sure if you could foretell the receptivity of each centipedes by having them seing each other... I guess only experimentation will tell...

 phil.


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## Elytra and Antenna (Apr 7, 2007)

hibludij said:


> has anyone ever tried to put two pedes in the same enclouser and put in some kinda net thingy(with glass on top so they cant climbe over) to seperate them so they can see and smell (whatever they do with the antenas) each other but canot atack each other and then watch the reactions to figure out if they are hostile or atracted to each other?


Some people have tried it and it is outlined in the Giant Centipedes book. However, the problem with centipede breeding in general is people are nearly always starting with wild-caught adult females and at least some, if not all, species are proven capable of retaining sperm more than 18 months. It's impossible to say any 'breeding' method has worked with a wild-caught female. Same problem is encountered with trying to prove or disprove parthenogenesis.

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## Nich (Apr 7, 2007)

Ive had a couple of sucessfull matings. I simply  housed the supposed males and females together for a co0uple months....risky but never had any problems.

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## Galapoheros (Apr 7, 2007)

Sleeting right now here in central TX:?.  Weird.  Welp, anyway, I think I could do a lot of breeding experiments since I have a lot of pedes right now.  I have mostly a bunch S. h. castaneiceps and that's the sp I'm referring to.  I have 9 adults and a lot of babies that are 10 months old.  I had 3 females that laid eggs.  They all laid eggs within 2 or 3 days of each other.  Pretty sure it was the first week in June.  I could nail that down by pulling up old egg pics.  I switch my pedes from 10 gal terrs to 1 gal plastic jugs to save space.  But I don't switch them very often.  Funny thing is that they seem more calm/content in the plastic jugs than in the glass 10 gal.  I don't see them desperate to get out in the jugs but I see them walking all over in the glass terrs and trying to climb the glass.  Plenty of rocks to hide under and plenty of moisture in the terrs.  The humidity is higher in the jugs though since they are shut, maybe has something to do with it.  I've had some of these for 2 years now.  I haven't had any adults die since I started the hobby again 2 years ago.  All the eggs were laid in the jugs.  They made tunnels against the sides of the plastic jugs.  When they where ready to lay eggs, they each made a chamber and shut themselves in.  I'm going to attempt a mating pretty soon I think.  I should try to catch it on video.  The two I think I'm going to put together are in the pics below.  Here are a lot of the babies from last year.  10 months old now.  There is a big difference in size/growth (pics).  Around 4 or 5 are monsters compared to the others.  The plings from the light legged female of the breeding pair I posted pics of in this thread all have light colored legs like their mother.

Some adults in plastic jugs:





If I had to guess, I'd say this would be a male.  But I found one that looked a lot like this with babies, so, who knows:





I know this one is a female becuase she laid eggs:





Baby condos:





Extreme size difference in some babies of the same age.  Some are VERY aggresive feeders, others seem very shy of live food.


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## Spider-Man v2.0 (Apr 7, 2007)

how can u tell witch sex is witch?? can u even do it at all?


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## bistrobob85 (Apr 7, 2007)

Wow, the last tergum on your ''female'' is MUCH larger than on the ''male'', for some reason i was always looking at the terminals themselves... Very nice pics, Galapo !!!!

 phil.


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## Stylopidae (Apr 7, 2007)

Elytra and Antenna said:


> Some people have tried it and it is outlined in the Giant Centipedes book. However, the problem with centipede breeding in general is people are nearly always starting with wild-caught adult females and at least some, if not all, species are proven capable of retaining sperm more than 18 months. It's impossible to say any 'breeding' method has worked with a wild-caught female. Same problem is encountered with trying to prove or disprove parthenogenesis.


I wholeheartedly agree with you, but I think our first step should be trying to figure out how to propogate these in the hobby.

After this, everything else will fall into place.

However, there's not a whole lot being done on this. It's good to see some people trying.

Galapoheros...my SHC from acon last year is just under three inches. Probably less. Do you think there's a maximum size or gender difference between the fast growing and slow growing type?


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## Galapoheros (Apr 8, 2007)

I've wondered that too.  I don't know.  I had over 200 babies.  I tried to keep all of the ones that were growing VERY noticeably faster than the rest.  That ratio turned out to be about 1 out of 40ish.  That's a very rough estimate.  There are all different sizes.  It just so happens that about 5 are huge compared to many of the other ones.  Actually, the three biggest ones are about the same size but there are a few close behind.  It may not mean anything at all when it comes to "growth and gender", or how big they could eventually get.  I've heard rumors of people seeing huge S. h. castaneiceps out there.  But the stories usually come from people that are scared of them.  People exaggerate things they are afraid of in their head.  It makes them run away faster.  But I believed a couple of people that told me some crazy stories.  The late owner of the Snakefarm and his wife told my they had one in their store that was 16 inches long.  I have to see to believe.  They started arguing over what color it was so, that backed up their story a little more as far as I was concerned.  He said it was an S. h. castaneiceps.  She said it wasn't and they started getting after it, arguing back and forth.  She said it was a "sandy" color.  He said it was black.  But the really big one I have now is not black, it's brown.  I guess that could be described as being a "sandy" color.  It kind of fits.  They said their nephew brought it in but they couldn't remember where he had gotten it.  Seems like they thought he found it in NM .  The couple looked like they were in their 70s.  I've told this story before.  I asked how they knew it was 16 inches.  He brought me over to what they kept it in and said that it touched each end of the terr it was in, and the terr was 16 inches long.  I know that's hard to swallow.  Anyway, I was speculating WAY out there and wondering if there is a "gigantism" kind of gene floating around in the heros gene pool that is usually not dominant.  I finally got a really big one that has a body length of 9.5 inches.  I plan on comparing two pics that I think will look pretty strange.  One will be of a small female with babies (anybody remember the pic of the one in the spoon?  That was a long time ago) and the other one of this monster in the same scenery.  That'd be pretty weird looking.  Take some work but I have the time.  A lot of pics to dig through.  Also at the park at Amistad res around Del Rio, their pamphlet says the local Scolopendra heros heros usually gets around 6 inches but can get up to 12 inches long.  If the Parks dept published that, seems pretty credible.  But, I still haven't seen any 12 inch heros with my own eyes.  But the 9.5 incher I have gets me closer to being a believer.  The fast growers may stop growing at 5 inches as far as I know.  I'm just flying by the seat of my pants with this stuff !!  MAN that was a long one!
Oh yea, I took some very crappy vid of the male spinning that web.  I still have dialup and so never loaded it.  It's so bad you can hardly tell what's going on anyway.

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## Stylopidae (Apr 8, 2007)

Galapoheros...do you think I could keep the larger species in jars like that?

Do you think a 9+ inch subspinpes could live in a jar like that?


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## Galapoheros (Apr 8, 2007)

9 inches .  That's pretty big.  I don't know, I just play around with them and see how they behave wherever I put them.  There are a lot of facts on this site and a lot of opinions.  So I experiment around and see how things go.  I've seen bigger round plastic containers.  I keep the monster in one of those bigger ones.  She has tunnels all over the place and I can see her most of the time.  I rarely see her trying to climb up towards the top.  She's usually under the sub in a "U" shape hole next to the plastic like one of those sea worms in the sand I used to see in a book when I was a kid.  I found those containers for less than $2.00 at the Dollar Store or some other store like it.  I bought them all!  They probably thought I was crazy, and I might be, hehehe.

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