distinguish

[Jule]

does anyone know how can i distinguish my centipede's sex?
i've been had it more than one year, but i still don't know it's gender..

 

[danread]

Hi Jule,

Unfortunately, the only ways that i've heard of to sex centipedes is to dissect it (not so useful) or to wait for eggs or a spermatophore to be laid. There's no reliable external features that can be used to sex centipedes, as there seems to be no sexual dimorphism that i've heard of. Unfortunately that seems to be why breeding centipedes is still a fairly rare occurrence.

Dan.

 

[Tarantula]

Wow that is very strange. You would think that if people knew how they amted that there would be some external physical difference with their genitals or something.

 

[danread]

To be honest, i'm was only repeating what i have heard elsewhere, so it is quite possible that there may be some small external difference between sexes of centipedes. The problem is that these are likely to be small structural differences found on or around the genital opening, that are only properly visible with a magnifying glass or a microscope. Then you get the problem of somehow getting a centipede to stay still for long enough to observe these differences, as in captivity it is normal behaviour for centipedes to eat their shed exoskeleton. It might be possible to hold the centipede in some sort of clear tubing to then allow examination of the gentital opening...... The problem is, i really wouldn't know what to look for. There definitely needs to be more research done in this area.

Cheers,

Dan.

 

[MrDeranged]

Originally posted by Tarantula
Wow that is very strange. You would think that if people knew how they amted that there would be some external physical difference with their genitals or something.

The problem with that is that mating centipedes, at this time, generally consists of:

• Throwing a bunch together and hope they mate and don't eat each other
  
• Rotating them between tanks and hope that one drops a spermatophore packet and that one picks it up
  

People really don't know what sexes they're dealing with unless they either lay eggs or drop a spermatophore packet.

Scott