I've got Haitan eggs!

[petitegreeneyes]

Oh how exciting! I was watering and feeding my pedes this morning and my Scolopendra suspinipes gave me a surprise. I lifted out her water dish and there she was with eggs. We took a few pics and then moved her gently to the maternity ward Now lets hope she doesn't eat them!

 

[petitegreeneyes]

this pic is a little on the dark side but can see the eggs good.

 

[petitegreeneyes]

last one.

 

[fatbloke]

congratulations on the eggs it is a surprise when you find them but i found with the first pede i had lay eggs i was excited and couldn't help but keep looking at them to see how they were doing and in the end she eat them i have now learnt not to keep looking as this disturds her but nothing really happens for about the first 30 days till they hatch then you get some movement from the pedelings


fatbloke

 

[Static_69]

That's awesome!
congrats and good luck!





Risto

 

[Henry Kane]

WOW!!! Awesome PTG! Now, leave them alone!!!
Best of luck with them.

Atrax

 

[petitegreeneyes]

I promise to leave them alone and hope for the best. We moved her to what I call the maternity ward and haven't looked at her anymore. Knowing my luck she will eat them because she hasn't been eating well before this so I thought she was in pre-molt. THANKS GUYS!!

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Congrats on your centipede producing eggs! Wishing your little ones a successful development and departure!

Take care,

Paul

 

[fatbloke]

dont worry to much about her not eating to much before laying the eggs. my female with her eggs now didnt eat for about 2-3 weeks before laying and she is still curled around them i have just checked her to see how the eggs are going and they are slowly turning from round eggs into small pedelings the most important thing with mothers is not to disturd her but the other pede that laid eggs about a month before her did eat some of her eggs but i ended up with 12 pedelings


fatbloke

 

[Static_69]

hmmm...I found this thread while doing a search to learn a little more about pede breeding because I'm interested in giving it a shot. What's the word on those eggs!?

Did they hatch yet?




Risto

 

[petitegreeneyes]

No, unfortunately she only had two weeks left until I should have seen something and needless to say I did see something. She was out and about and there wasn't any plings. I was so disappointed but my gut told me that she couldn't go that long without eating. I do have two Halloween pedes, (Scolopendra species) that were wild caught and extremely fat. One of them has been in hiding for quite a while, at least two weeks and normally she comes out and about. So I am hoping that this one might do something for me. I haven't even touched her cage and I do need to water her real soon. So wish me luck, cause I really want someone to give me some babies

 

[Static_69]

Wow...Well good luck with your Halloween pedes!
I hope you get some plings running around!






Risto

 

[Henry Kane]

Hi Becky. If you don't mind the suggestion, next brood you get, don't move the mom at all. If she was comfortable enough to lay eggs in a particular spot, then (if they're fertile) she should have every intention of carrying them full term there. Most pedes are super sensitive to any disturbances when they are carrying eggs.
Even as far as humidity is concerned, I recommend only very gently mist, or better yet, just carefully pour the water in an area not too close to the mom.


It's just a theory but think of it like this, look how defensive pedes are just by themselves. Now, when a momma pede has a brood , she is almost defenseless and so are her eggs. It's easy to consider why they would eat the eggs so readily when bothered since they a) will no longer be encumbered with eggs and b) will have quick nutrition to retgain a bit of lost strength.
Like I said, it's just a theory of mine so take that part with a grain of salt.

Good luck with future broods!

Atrax

 

[petitegreeneyes]

Hey thanks Atrax I got to feed and water all my pedes tonight so I was curious about moving the one down from the shelf to water her but I won't now. What you say makes perfect sense to me and I appreciate your advice!!!!!

Becky

 

[oblivion56]

the momma is a haitian?i have a haitian and i dont know much about them!please tell me what you know!thanx,brian

 

[phoenixxavierre]

HI all,

Just throwing in my two cents here.

The Malaysian Scolopendra mother I had produce eggs and babies was kept in a 1 gallon rubbermaid. I kept her container VERY humid. And I opened the container on a daily basis to check on her and get a close look, would even pick it up and move it around. At times I would go a week without opening it, but rarely. She was in a high traffic area with plenty of light and she raised her brood just fine. I don't mean to throw a wrench in the works, but did want to share my personal experience with this specimen.

Now I also had a Vietnamese Scolopendra who DID eat her eggs. But I suspect, like other inverts, this was due to the possibility that they were duds, and the mother knew it somehow.

One other Vietnamese Scolopendra I kept produced eggs and babies but died before the babies had gained any color. The babies were perhaps a week or two from dispersion. At any rate, when the mother died, the babies died shortly thereafter. Not sure why, though.

Best wishes,

Paul

 

[conipto]

Just out of curiousity.. why wouldn't you remove the eggs like us T people do? I would imagine they are either fertilized, or not, by the time you notice her curled around them. Is there a reason other than dealing with an angry pede not to move the eggs to some kind of artificial incubator?

Bill

 

[Henry Kane]

Hi Paul. Yes, there are certainly exceptions to the general rule but on average, major disturbances (and still quite often even minor ones) can and will result in the mom eating the eggs.
I had a S. polymorpha that was quite tolerant of being (gently) disturbed while brooding her eggs but in contrast to the number of broods I have lost by simply taking a picture of misting too close pretty much sums it up. Also, it's fairly safe to assume it was being disturbed that caused the females to eat the brood as well. In all cases (in my experience at least) the mother pede carries the eggs, grooms them, picks a nice safe spot to curl up etc etc and remains there for a couple to a few weeks. Then, unfortunately, after gaining a false sense of security I would either take a picture, uncover the mom from her hide to peek in or mist too close and then by the next time I check on them, sure enough, the eggs have been munched.
Anyhow, like I said there are exceptions but I believe they are rare cases. Again, I base this on average in my experience.
Anyone else have any input on this? I'm curious to hear if anyone else has observed a different pattern or average with brooding pedes.

Atrax

 

[fatbloke]

conipto
the reason being why we leave the eggs with the mother is because the eggs would go mouldy as the mothers body exudes a disinfecting substance


fatbloke

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Originally posted by Atrax
Hi Paul. Yes, there are certainly exceptions to the general rule but on average, major disturbances (and still quite often even minor ones) can and will result in the mom eating the eggs.
I had a S. polymorpha that was quite tolerant of being (gently) disturbed while brooding her eggs but in contrast to the number of broods I have lost by simply taking a picture of misting too close pretty much sums it up. Also, it's fairly safe to assume it was being disturbed that caused the females to eat the brood as well. In all cases (in my experience at least) the mother pede carries the eggs, grooms them, picks a nice safe spot to curl up etc etc and remains there for a couple to a few weeks. Then, unfortunately, after gaining a false sense of security I would either take a picture, uncover the mom from her hide to peek in or mist too close and then by the next time I check on them, sure enough, the eggs have been munched.
Anyhow, like I said there are exceptions but I believe they are rare cases. Again, I base this on average in my experience.
Atrax

Hi Atrax,

Just curious, how did you know whether or not the eggs were fertile, aside from them being captive bred? What was your method of breeding? How did you know whether or not between your checking the eggs they became moldy or went bad? Also, another question that would enter my mind is whether the misting, the water, had anything to do with the eggs possibly going bad? How many times did you actually witness the centipede eating the eggs immediately upon disturbance? I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I am wondering what leads one to attribute disturbances to the cause of the mothers behavior. Just because the behavior occurs following a picture being taken, or a misting, how do you know 100% that the disturbance is the cause of the behavior? How do you know it wouldn't have occurred anyways or due to some other variable that was not accounted for?

Conipto,

The mother spends a GREAT deal of time picking up every individual egg and cleaning it. She spends ALL of her time protecting and cleaning her eggs during her "awake" periods.

Fatbloke,

Do you have any references to this disinfecting substance? Thanks!

Best wishes,

Paul