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=-

 

[Richard 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]

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]

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.