My adult female Scolopendra hainanum started molting yesterday morning - and stopped about half way. I don't know what went wrong - but she's still halfway through the molt today and appears to be stuck. Any suggestions as to how I can help her? She's got plenty to drink, and I added to the humidity (placed some damp sphagnum on top of her). But that hasn't helped yet.
Molting Problem - Hoping for Advice.
- Thread starter Bill S
- Start date
It's about half way along the body. I can't tell how firmly attached it is. I added more water to the substrate yesterday, and the sphagnum I placed over her last night is wet. I had hoped that when I got up this morning I'd find her free of the molt - but that didn't happen.
Apparently the molting issue was a symptom or a coincidence, not the real problem. She died this morning, and when i picked her up the remaining molt came off fairly easily. Whatever killed her just happened to do so as she was molting. But I have no idea what it was that caused her death. She was an adult, and had been so for a while (she had a litter of babies last year), but I doubt she was old enough to die of old age. She had been feeding well, appeared otherwise healthy. Fortunately, I still have a number of her babies, and they have shown the hardiness that I think is typical of the species.