Giant Centipede Handing... VIDEOS!

[cacoseraph]

Wow, you've done quite a nice little video there Galapo!!!! I like the part on the venom . Oh, and your sc.h.a is very good looking too, hehe .

phil.

yeah! we're easy to tell apart... gala... uh... i mean, i....

gala just got a hair cut!


@gala. are you making sure to use the lofi version? it's about 1/3 the size of the hifi version. it's still going to be hellacious over a dialup, though. plus... it's just a regular afternoon for you, so you wouldn't be missing much. heh.

 

[Galapoheros]

Ha, yeah I'm using the low res. MAN!, am I lazy! I'm going to upgrade. I'm going to upgrade. I'm going to upgrade. I'm going to upgrade. The master procrastinator. I haven't done any handling in a while, but I'd be real happy if the big one that got out crawled up and bit me on my eyeball.

 

[bistrobob85]

Oups, sorry, i obviously meant Caco !!!! I havent seen Galapo's haircut but that brings me to ask myself, do i need a haircut too . Wow, enough about hair...

Anyways, you've got some great material there, Caco. If you could gather a few elements like a goodcamera, a few species and a better lighting, you could do some pretty nice home documentaries!!!! That would defenetly change us of the '' I have a big pede eating a mouse '' neverending video...

phil.

 

[P. Novak]

Great video caco! Very informative and interesting! I love the centipede; absolutely stunning!

Off topic: You remind me of Rob Zombie, awesome man, rock on!

 

[cacoseraph]

Scolopendra gigantea, "Peruvian giant centipede"

Scolopendra gigantea, Peruvian giant centipede

Scolopendra gigantea, Peruvian giant centipede is one of the largest species of centipedes in the world. It has reliably obtained 9-10"/22-25cm body length and reputably achieved 12-14"/30-35cm!

As the name implies, this centipede can be found in Peru and in other parts of the Amazon. Heavy restrictions on the invertebrate trade from most/all ofthe countries of origin of the beautiful species ensure that they remain rare in USA collections... but when you can find one to view they are simply amazing!

This centipede is at least 9"/22cm long in the body. If you count its antenna and long hind legs this centipede can stretch an amazing 14"/36cm!

A fellow local bughead was kind enough to let me play with his gigantea, which is very fortunate for me as i will likely never be able to afford the $300+ (USD2007) that this specimen would go for on the open USA market.

The bite of this species is likely very unpleasant, but in no way deadly to humans. There is not a lot written about centipede envenomations and even less about envenomations by this pracking huge species. I was very tempted to test this venom on myself... but the large unknown factor and the fact i drove myself to the Bugfair where i handled this pede convinced me that discretion is probably the better part of valor... for now!

n.b. there is some confusion in the hobby world about just what exactly to call this species, scientifically. For a while there were VERY large centipedes from South America being sold variously as Scolopendra gigantea, S. robusta, or S. gigantea robusta. Officially the trinomial S. gigantea robusta has been busted (heh, boy its so late for me right now, it is early... can you tell?) by the noted myriapodologist Rowland Shelley. Officially S. robusta are a similar looking, though much smaller (though still largeish in the grand scheme) species from Mexico and S. gigantea are a HUGE centipedes from the Amazon...

so i *think* this is S. gigantea, even though it was sold to its current owner as S. robusta.

hifi!
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lofi
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tinyfi
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[moose35]

caco you have some huge gonopods...


moose

 

[beetleman]

ya very impressive:clap: i would hold the smaller ssp. but the larger..........hmm, i have my scolo.gigantea gigantea(whiteleg)(she's about 11") raised her since she was about 4" and she is still very aggressive,when i open the sterilite to feed/water,i'm very careful,she just molted so she can be even bigger now,as for handling not for me.

 

[cacoseraph]

Scolopendra heros cf arizonensis (bugfair) hifi/lofi 01:10

Scolopendra heros cf arizonensis (bugfair) hifi/lofi 01:10

This is a very large specimen of Scolopendra heros arizonensis that i got to play with at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum Bugfair 2007.

It belongs to my bug buddy Francisco Torres, of Insect Adventures

I don't necesarily think handling this species of centipede is a good idea... but i just love doing it and how many chances am i going to get to play with pedes this big? I get bit a lot, a lot of the time nothign happens even when i see venom dripping from my wounds... but sometimes it hurts a lot.

[4.7MB WMV FILE]
[youtube]L7eJ8aHOUU8[/youtube]


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[youtube]zT_0lRmHd1g[/youtube]

 

[Galapoheros]

Son of a diddly, that IS a big one! I'm kind of shallow, I like the big pedes. Thanks for the vid!

 

[P. Novak]

That thing sure is big! Great video once more Caco; it's very informative. What was the after effect from the venom like?

 

[beetleman]

ahhh:clap: very nice!

 

[cacoseraph]

That thing sure is big! Great video once more Caco; it's very informative. What was the after effect from the venom like?

absolutely nothing happened. i didn't see any venom drip out of the wound like i have before so i don't know if it was a wet or dry bite.

ahhh:clap: very nice!

thanks man

 

[8+)]

Handling S. subspinipes mutilans

All these giant centipede handling videos inspired the courage in me to handle one of my own!!!

[YOUTUBE]MC0aR0-RFMs[/YOUTUBE]

;P

 

[cacoseraph]

All these giant centipede handling videos inspired the courage in me to handle one of my own!!!



;P

argh. no youtube at work. can't wait to see.

 

[syiware]

All these giant centipede handling videos inspired the courage in me to handle one of my own!!!

[YOUTUBE]MC0aR0-RFMs[/YOUTUBE]

;P

oh my god.. it has no head.. you did?

 

[8+)]

NO! I wanted a community of these. I had two that were together for a while, and showed no aggression toward each other. I bought four more, and I believe I made two mistakes: One, I only had one large hide. Two, I probably should have rearranged the enclosure and reintroduced them all together.

Maybe they would have still had some sorting out to do? Anyway, I broke the big piece of bark into several pieces and I know that at least four are still doing fine together, and one more may be burrowed under.

I suppose it's possible they are not all mutilans as well?

I make sure I keep them well fed.

 

[markface]

those are some awesome vids ! i definately want to get some more pedes in the near future . the only one i have at the moment is a little 2 inch wild caught Hemiscolopendra marginata . i'm hoping it will get bigger .

 

[cacoseraph]

well, there are these MEAN tiger centipedes by my house... Crankypants is one of them... they all have this real toxic yellow color to them

so, cranky bit me about 5 times, i got bit four times (once each by four dif pedes) the last time i was collecting, and then there are two baby polymorpha from my brother's poly (RIP) that have bit me lots.

so call it... 20 times total, about

i think cuz i handle polymorpha the most, to date, that is why i've been bitten most by them. come to think of it, that's the only species that has accidentily bit me out of like, 15 or so that i've handled

Scolopendra heros, arizonensis colorform

Scolopendra heros, arizonensis colorform: Handle & About low
6:57 uploaded from a 15 MB WMV file (lofi version)




i have a hifi version uploading still. uploaded from a 54MB wmv file, iirc



oh, and that post before this makes me laugh. i think i have been tagged by centipedes like maybe 300 times now. heh.

i honestly couldn't count how many times i have been bitten and stung and sprayed and exuded upon now. a thousand is no longer outside the realm of possibility. i have easily taken 400+ centipede bites between ~15+ species, and only three have really messed me up. Scolopendra sp. "thai jewel" (likely one of the gazillions of S. subspinipes) was narrowly the worst. the other two species that really sucked where S. morsitans, "tanzanian tiger, black head morph, male" and Ethmostigmus trigonopodus, "yellow legs".





i kind of took some time off from bug world and definitely took some time off from making vids and posting online. since time i linked to youtube here, i have made only a single additional handling video... of my beloved S. polymorpha

Catch a Tiger (centipede) By The Tail
[YOUTUBE]LWYBt4IYU9w[/YOUTUBE]
"Scolopendra polymorpha, North American tiger centipede, is probably the most commonly found giant centipede in California. They can give a bit of a bite and large specimens can inject a sizable amount of venom if you let them but they should not be considered dangerous to humans. They are known as tiger centipedes due to the dark horizontal barring you can see on this dude, but not all localities andor specimens from normally barred localities possess the stripes. They will take down other bugs and scavenge meat."
lofi version --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anL6nubJ7EQ