Sc. galapagoensis, just sayin

[Ckelly02]

Congrats on successful breeding! I have been collecting pedes for many years but have never been able to acquire such a beautiful pede as the Galapagoensis. Would definitely pay big bucks for one.

 

[tmcv]

Hey tmcv, it'd be nice to see a pic of that 28cm you have in the lab there, is that the biggest one there?

Galapoheros I'll took some photos of the monster!!

 

[dactylus]

WOW!!


Congratulations!! What a sight!!

:biggrin:

 

[Scorpendra]

Congrats! I've been waiting for this for what felt like forever. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing those babies go up for sale.

 

[fenrirswrath]

You can add me as a definite buyer as well.

 

[catfishrod69]

After keeping a few odd and end pedes, i decided to let go of all of them except S. polymorpha. They are so much more forgiving. But i have recently decided to get back into pedes, and learn how to sex them. Maybe in the future i can help you guys out with male/female loans, and adding more CB to the hobby.

 

[Galapoheros]

OK, more stuff to look at, I'm trying to make it more exciting here lol. They are finally molting, I only see a few that molted so far. I'm being careful not to bump of disturb them esp. at this point. They would start running over everybody else and that wouldn't be good for one that's molting:bruised:.

Here's another one that has molted again. I'm also suspicious of something concerning this sps, something to do with the plings at the stage they are in when they eat the mother. See the mandibles on the little pling there(I circled in red), they seem a little large for their size to me, I'm wondering if they protrude out in front more than on most species at this stage. If so I suppose it could be more adaptation to consuming the mother pede, pretty weird if that's the case.

 

[beetleman]

wow! awesome closeups,those babies are beauuuuuuuuuutiful! looking great.

 

[Galapoheros]

I think you're just being nice beetlemanpete lol, they just look ghostly to me but beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course. Check this out, I took a molt of the big-headed babies and took a closer look at those mandibles ....imo, made to eat up mommy, what else would they need those for if they don't come out until the next molt(?) Next will be pics of their new cured bods and when they are able to eat, guess that'll be all. To me, these look better as they get older while some other species seem to fade with age.

 

[zonbonzovi]

That is weird. I'm very curious to see how they develop in the upcoming molts. Adults lack these, yeah?

 

[Galapoheros]

I think most Scolopendra have mandibles, the chewing parts, but I read somewhere that Geophilomorpha doesn't, don't really know about that though. A person would need to look into it more, the few mandibles I've looked at aren't this gnarly looking. After they molt again, I could take a pic of the mandibles then. My guess is that they won't have the "teeth" that look so long and sharp anymore. Teeth-like features should be there, but I don't think they will look like that in the pic.

 

[zonbonzovi]

I could never get Geo's to sit still long enough for a ventral macro pic. When I first saw your pic it looked like coxosternal teeth from hell but the positioning was odd(pointing inward rather than toward the antennae. Have you noticed mandibles with with obvious "teeth" before? Just freaked out(in a good way) as I always assumed mandibles were only for manipulation of food, but yeah, that looks like a stage specific structure if I'm looking at it from the right perspective?

 

[Galapoheros]

Yeah I think there is some modification there at that stage. If you go here http://www.alanmommerency.be/centipede_anatomy_scolopendromorpha.html ,what you are looking at in my pic are the hard chewing features that are underneath the softer, white, "covers" where it's labeled "1st mandible" in the 3rd pic at the site. I never have gotten into the anatomy of inverts much. I saved more exuvia, I'll see if I can get a better pic later.

---------- Post added 02-09-2013 at 05:51 PM ----------

OK these pics will allow a better perspective, much better! You can see the "teeth" in the background behind the focused fangs.

Here's a pic with more focus on the teeth.

Here's another specimen, to me the fangs(tarsungulum) look more adapted to cutting at this stage, I see a sharp edge. You can see the teeth in the background, they are covered as in the anatomy diagram on the site I linked to earlier.

I took a needle, that is much more dull than the teeth btw, and tried to expose and separate them better.

All this is at a very small scale by the way, took some pics just now to give a better idea of that;

 

[zonbonzovi]

Ah, OK...so used to those 1st mandibles looking like a bumpy, partially submerged tennis ball with a butt crack, haha. It's strange that the coxosternal teeth in the foreground have barely developed. Fascinating, G, thanks for putting this up!

 

[Galapoheros]

HA, yeah what you have been seeing are what I think of as being the covers/centipede lips, covering what most people would think of as being the true jaws. I'm guessing these babies lose their baby teeth(the very sharp thinner ones with this molt, I will check the next molts to find out. I'm guessing the stronger, thicker looking dark ones grow with the centipede and maybe will get more modified for grinding and chewing. A lot of guessing there I know but what else is there to do. I think people would like to checkout some recent pics in the gallery of Scolopendra viridicornis by AB user "Giantipede", people would have to do a gallery search for the pics. imo it's nice viridicornis specimen and also see that there is a good pic there of viridicornis babies, they look very different than what I expected, I expected them to look very bland like the galapagoensis babies over here. But I don't know if the color is standard for the babies of course, you know how it goes for pedes, but it could be typical. I know, ...a lot of speculating on my part, it's what I do haha.

 

[J Morningstar]

I'm down, will be there for a few!!!! OMG! you did a fantastic job onnthe breeding!!

 

[Galapoheros]

Thanks JM but I only watched lol, and they went through 3 batches of eggs(eaten) before a batch finally developed. I'd eat the eggs too instead of getting eaten by those little buggers! There is one left that needs to molt, it was injured, I'll post a pic here later I guess, something to look at anyway.

Making some repairs, suppose that's why it's taking it a while.

 

[coldvaper]

Wow I disappear for a couple of months and now you have babies congrats my man. I hope you can get some good breeding groups together.

 

[J Morningstar]

So from all the pics, how many babies in all survived?

---------- Post added 02-16-2013 at 08:53 PM ----------

I just rrealized perhaps I should not have removed my Mother of the chinese giant, when she passed after having the pedelings...

 

[Galapoheros]

That last one didn't make it, there are 153, don't know what happened to the other two but I could've miss-counted the first go-round. Here they are after the final molt when they leave and start hunting on their own. The last pic is the typical look these plings have atm.