Canary Pedes?

[Androctonus_bic]

What spp. inside of the order scolopendromorpha can I find if I travel to this islands?

S. valida and what else?

Cheers
Carles

 

[peterbourbon]

Hey,

you can definitely find S. valida if you travel to Tenerife/Gomera.
Otostigmus spinicaudus is also found on Canary Islands.

I only found one collection area stated in literature for S. valida on Tenerife - that's Barranco del Infierno. Nevertheless it's a protected and observed canyon (with rangers running around, entry fee of approx. 6 euros and restricted access from 8 a.m. to 4p.m.).
I personally suppose you can also find S. valida in the cooler and foggy areas like Anaga mountains.

Though triggering Steven with my mobile phone i could not find any pede last year. (maybe August was a little bit too dry and hot).

Nevertheless - If you want a spanish paper, go for this:
http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/cmayot/espaciosnaturales/instrumentos/areadescarga/bcoinfierno/aprobaciondefinitiva/DocumentoInformativo.pdf

Good luck! *fingers crossed*

Regards
Turgut

 

[Androctonus_bic]

Hi Turgut;

I found also in other papers, that non speak specifically about the Barranco del infierno natural reserve, that also exist Cryptops trisulcatus in canary islands.

Two questions: ?Do you know what the habitat of S. valida, the foggy mountains or the volcanic extensions? Maybe is better to know where to look for. And do you know whats the sice of S. valida? There is not too many info of this bug.

And what is that?

http://www.insectariumvirtual.com/galeria/Scolopendra-canidens-img43321.html

Cheers
Carles

 

[peterbourbon]

Hey,

literature states S. valida grows up to 16cm.
It's difficult to say something about the preferred area since we know two things:

1) S. valida also occurs in Iran/Iraque where you have a lot of deserted areas
2) Barranco del Infierno is very very cool, moisty and thus somehow unique regarding South Tenerife's climate (dry, hot).

The centipede shown on picture is IMHO not S. canidens or S. oraniensis. The number of sparsely hirsute antenna segments seems to be approx. 3 (oraniensis has 5-6 and canidens even much more) which points more to the Otostigmus-direction (plus the thin terminals). Maybe it's the already mentioned Otostigmus spinicaudus?

Guess you have to try your luck. User "Mauer" (Adam) from Poland Imre Bengerno from Ireland once kept S. valida, but i suppose their specimen died. AFAIK they got it from a dealer who caught some specimen on Canary Islands, so it's the Canary morph:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m304/caseyfake/IMG_2860.jpg?t=1239555467

(specimen from Iran appear sometimes "ghost-like", comparable to the white canidens-morph)

EDIT: While scrolling through the pics of your mentioned site, this one is also not canidens, but 100% sure S. valida :
http://www.insectariumvirtual.com/galeria/Scolopendra-canidens-img17334.html

Regards,
Turgut

 

[Androctonus_bic]

Hi;

So we have two humidity levels in the habitat of S. valida, semiarid and cool rain mountains. Maybe, higrometry doesn't afect too much this pede and can adapt to a diferent %. But acording steven web site... maybe is a the world distribution (near to the tropic) most important factor.

http://www.scolopendra.be/scolopendra_more.php?specie_id=86

But this teory has a mistake, ther is not same temperatures in canary islands and in iraq... so I only can thing that this sp. is very adaptable.

About the link that I uploaded yesterdey, I'm agree with you that it can be otostigmus spinicaudus. I put them because It didn't looks like to me scolopendra sp.

And also, I'm completly sure that the other pede is S. valida.

Do you have other pictures of no canary island S. valida?

Cheers
Carles

 

[bengerno]

Hi guys,

Just some additional info, It might help.
The guy who I bought my validas from was selling Chalcides sexlineatus (Canary island skinks) aswell. I doubt he went to somewhere just to collect scolopendras, I think he just collected the skinks and found some valida too. So maybe If you check the distribution of these skinks, you can find the places where the validas are living.
BTW I had 2 speciemens of valida (both died) one was much darker than the yellow one on my pics (I will try to find those pictures).

 

[peterbourbon]

Hey,

i think the skinks are distributed at least in Northern part of Tenerife, i saw some of them on my hiking way to one of the most North-Eastern points (Roque Bermejo). Seemed to be a good place to collect insects as well.

Regards,
Turgut