# teenage galapagoensis/gigantea



## Galapoheros (Dec 20, 2013)

They are almost a year old now.  They aren't as big as they look in the first pic(5-6 inches), must be the camera angle, but they are at a size when they are really fast and eat a lot.  I have many of them and plan on doing something like a "size" experiment.  With around 80 to 90, I want to see how big the largest one gets.  Yesterday I ordered the largest deli containers I could find, those should work.  It may sound like it could get a little cramped but I take adults outside in the back yard to walk around for some fresh air lol.  They calm down a lot as adults.  It's not hard to do, I may spend 8 hours a month on them.  btw, I know many people call these galapagoensis but I typed "gigantea" in the title because I sent a few specimens to a scientist that studies myriapodology and he said they had characteristics of both galapagoensis and gigantea, he leaned to them being gigantea but he had little time to spend on looking at them closer, always more research to be done, it's confusing.  I have noticed too that these start off with something like 3.5 smooth antennomers and that number increases with age. 






recently molted

Reactions: Like 8


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## cantthinkofone (Dec 20, 2013)

you breed them dont you? I remember seeing posts about you having some. Goodluck!


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## melijoc (Dec 20, 2013)

Lucky. I'm a pede fan myself. Just wish more of the chinese species are readily available. I have a gigantea also the robustum kind.


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## Galapoheros (Dec 20, 2013)

Could you post a pic of the "robustrum" here, I'm curious to see it.  Is it kind of orange colored?

Yeah cantthinkofone, I plan to keep them going here in the US at least.  But with the pede market, it seems some people don't want one and then there are those that REALLY want them but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot people like that.  Imo pedes seem to have "smart" instincts for hunting.  They seem to have more going in the ole noggin than some other inverts since they roam to hunt.  They have to sense out things and be careful out in the open.


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## Scolopendras (Dec 20, 2013)

melijoc said:


> Lucky. I'm a pede fan myself. Just wish more of the chinese species are readily available. I have a gigantea also the robustum kind.


its not robustum. Its "robusta" and im also interested in seeing your gigantea and robusta you got.


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## zonbonzovi (Dec 20, 2013)

How many smooth antennomeres did your adults max out with?


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## Galapoheros (Dec 20, 2013)

I only kept one adult, it has 7 now, but I don't know if anybody has focused in on it enough to see if it's the "max".  My guess is that people got them as juvs to adults so most have seen them with 4 to 7 or so and assumed they were born that way not noticing that it changes with age.


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## zonbonzovi (Dec 20, 2013)

Yeah, that's what I was wondering.  I pulled this up again today and it got me thinking: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03946975.2000.10531129

Looking forward to your brood growing up to see how things shake out!


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## Galapoheros (Dec 20, 2013)

Hmm, first time to read that though I have seen "clips" from it.  "Variation. As shown in Tables 2-3, specimens from South America that correspond to S. gigantea weyrauchi agree with ones of S. galapagoensis from the Galápagos
islands in having 4-7 sparsely hirsute antennomeres and usually only one leg,
the first one, with femoral spurs. These data show that weyrauchi is a synonym of
S. galapagoensis instead of being a race of S. gigantea."  These over at my place have femoral spurs on many legs, and I see how it says, "...usually only one leg.."  Even that much shows that femoral spurs should not be a reliable ID characteristic imo.  What about polymorphism within one species making it appear to be a different sps(?)  It's stated as fact but, imo it should not be stated that way, guess time will tell!

Here is a pic of the femoral spurs on the specimens over here, this was pointed out to me by another member on this site, he must have read this as well.  The characteristic of femoral spurs might also be what the scientist noticed when taking a quick look.  It wouldn't surprise me if galapagoensis and gigantea are the same sps after all, a reckless statement maybe but I really don't think people know for sure at this point.


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## cantthinkofone (Dec 20, 2013)

Heck I'd take one but that's low on my list right at the moment, with a couple alipes and an import license on top.


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## Jormungand (Dec 21, 2013)

i know some south america centipedes will eat their mother when they are birth, such as the galapagoensis
but they are still the largest centipede in this world, i'm interested in the reason
may be as they are grow too fast than other centipedes? or may be they are not mating until they get a big size? or some times the mother will be save when its babies are born?
i hope you can find the answer from your galapagoensis
and in fact, i have some baby robusta (of course they eaten their mother too), and try to find more habits about the south america centipedes


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## zonbonzovi (Dec 21, 2013)

Gala, that seems to be the fallacy of taxonomy, in general, or at least for the purposes we're using it.  Some of the characters that delineate speciation from one animal to the next leave me scratching my head.  I understand the system is meant as an organizational device for us pea brained humans to wrap our grey stuff around but...damn!  They very well could be slight variations of the same creature depending on how you look at it.  They are both, after all, from the outskirts of the one of the most bio-rich places on the planet.  If we can find unknown creatures in well traveled locations it's definitely not outside the realm of possibility that there could be much undescribed variation emanating from the heart of S. America outwards.  Still holding out for one that flies :coffee:


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## melijoc (Dec 21, 2013)

This is the pic


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## Galapoheros (Dec 21, 2013)

Jormungand said:


> i know some south america centipedes will eat their mother when they are birth, such as the galapagoensis
> but they are still the largest centipede in this world, i'm interested in the reason
> may be as they are grow too fast than other centipedes? or may be they are not mating until they get a big size? or some times the mother will be save when its babies are born?
> i hope you can find the answer from your galapagoensis
> and in fact, i have some baby robusta (of course they eaten their mother too), and try to find more habits about the south america centipedes


Well, the ID issue, just have to call it this or that for now right.  I had the same experience jormungand.  I could see the babies and imo, they are designed to eat the mother, looks like it's just the way it goes and have heard of them dying when taken away from eating the mother.  Most other plings at the same stage would be very fast and ready to leave but these were still very slow and I could tell they could not catch anything, they eat the mother instead.  I originally had 5 juvs and they started mating at 6 to 7 inches, but the females kept eating eggs, very sensitive to disturbances.  They all grew over 9 inches though.  The 5 I first received were all the same size, it made me think the collectors came across an area where siblings had been roaming around.  They do grow fast, these are captive born and just short of a year old.  It could be the big ones found in the wild are often males since they have not babies to eat them.

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## MrCrackerpants (Dec 21, 2013)

Galapoheros said:


> Well, the ID issue, just have to call it this or that for now right.  I had the same experience jormungand.  I could see the babies and imo, they are designed to eat the mother, looks like it's just the way it goes and have heard of them dying when taken away from eating the mother.  Most other plings at the same stage would be very fast and ready to leave but these were still very slow and I could tell they could not catch anything, they eat the mother instead.  I originally had 5 juvs and they started mating at 6 to 7 inches, but the females kept eating eggs, very sensitive to disturbances.  They all grew over 9 inches though.  The 5 I first received were all the same size, it made me think the collectors came across an area where siblings had been roaming around.  They do grow fast, these are captive born and just short of a year old.  It could be the big ones found in the wild are often males since they have not babies to eat them.


Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this.


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## Galapoheros (Dec 22, 2013)

melijoc said:


> This is the pic


Thanks for posting that pic btw.  My suspicion is that it's a color variant of the same species, ...just guessing!  It may be much like the heros color variants and polymorpha variants.


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## herpguy (Dec 22, 2013)

Looking great Todd!  I really love this species.  My little one STILL hasn't molted.  Its head is distended as anything but still nothing.  I keep mine pretty hot too.  I can't go back to keeping other pedes after these, they are way more interesting.


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## Galapoheros (Dec 23, 2013)

I almost feel the same way, I look at the other pedes I have and kind of go, "eeehhhhh, whatever."  It kind of sucks in a way lol.  90% of the ones over here look like they are about to explode too, imo they should molt at least within the next two months.  One just molted(in a pic here) and I think they are kind of synced up since they are the same age.  I try to keep them at 75 to 80F but they are doing OK atm at around 70, still eating just fine.  It's cold outside and I think keeping that room at 70 is good enough.  It warms up to 89 several times during the day when it gets hot outside and they still seem to do OK.


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## herpguy (Dec 25, 2013)

Yeah I'm sure 70 is good enough.  I try to keep mine in the high 70s to low 80s.  
Last night my little one looked like a boiled lobster.  I expected it to molt and sure enough woke up to a pale, mushy centipede.
Last night 






This morning

Reactions: Like 1


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## Galapoheros (Dec 29, 2013)

Alright!, going to be bigger, nice and shiney, and hungry later.  See how the 5th antennomeres got a little darker with the molt?  It did, didn't it?  Kind of hard to see in the pics but that's how it goes with these.


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## loganhopeless (May 6, 2014)

Do they come from the Galapagos? Just curious because I'm going there this summer through National Geographic and want to find some cool bugs!


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## laurenkane (May 6, 2014)

They are beautiful! Are you interested in selling any? I would love to have one... Also, what do you mean by taking them outside for walks?? I would love to see a vid of that!


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