Scolopendra reproduction

[Galapoheros]

If you think life in the tropical rain forests of Peru or Brazil is shangri la, spend a year living in there without any of the amenities of modern life (as an experiment) and I'll bet after two weeks you'll gladly trade it in for that room in solitary, you described.
Cheers.

But, when you open that cage, the centipede will leave for the rain forests of Peru, Brazil. At least it will leave the cage if it finds a way out of the cage. It does not want the amenities, maybe you are anthropomorphizing now. Most likely, to a centipede, it's best element is out there, what we see as stress is what it thrives on. We are taking it out of it's home and because if it's nature, it avoids the cage, it avoids that environment. It's not unreasonable to keep in mind that that alone is probably stressful. Personally I think it has much to do with not being able to go in and out of micro environments when caged, it's limited that way, we don't know exactly what they do in the wild, how much do they sense "outside", the rain, the fresh air, seasonal changes, monsoons, etc. I've seen some surprising things, they are not so "just an invertebrate". I've seen them "think", for lack of a better word, that they are about to escape an enclosure, they barely push the top up and they notice. I push it back down to lock it and they obviously get worked up about noticing they might have pushed up an opening and they immediately try harder. There seems to be something a caged animal loses. I remember catching a squirrel in a live trap, it was panicking as I approached. Not knowing what to do, it started eating, panicked, ate some more, then flipped over into shock but lived. The eating looked normal but in reality it was very stressed. I think it can be hard to tell when stress occurs.

 

[Insektzuchen]

In another thread you called a tarantula (Malaysian Blue Femur) an insect. Now you're referring to a centipede as an insect. Do you think frogs are reptiles, too?

Merriam-Webster defines "insect" as:
1a: any of numerous small invertebrate animals (as spiders or centipedes) that are more or less obviously segmented - not used technically
b: any of a class (Insecta) of arthropods (as bugs or bees) with well-defined head, thorax, and abdomen, only three pairs of legs, and typically one or two pairs of wings
2: a trivial or contemptible person

 

[vespers]

"Not used technically" ...just because the cast of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" may not know the difference, that is still no excuse to perpetuate the use of blatantly mistaken terminology.
This is Arachnoboards; people usually come here looking for information, including proper taxonomy...and most members here encourage the use of binomial nomenclature, let alone grade school biological classification.

 

[zonbonzovi]

Sigh. The topic is "Scolopendra reproduction", one that I'd like to see more of in this section so perhaps we can stick to the details and leave noted myriapod experts W-M out of the discussion(eye roll). The derailing of the topic started with the contention that the centipede first pictured was not receiving sufficient nutrition. I advise you to look again. It is quite well known among folks that have kept gravid females that external stress can have detrimental effects on the brood, i.e., the mother eats the eggs. Outside the terrarium centipedes hide themselves away very well to mitigate these stresses. In the terrarium they are subject to whatever we provide as well as our invasions(this can be seen again and again in this very forum when well meaning but impetuous keepers ignore the advice of others and continually check on a centipede with eggs). Often this involves a brood chamber without entrance or exit. If nutrition is such a large concern, why does the female never leave the eggs during development and create a space that discourages prey from entering? In my limited experience with successful broods I've never fed during care of eggs or while a tarantula/spider is guarding a sac or when a scorpion is carrying the newly hatched...as expected, they've done just fine

Regarding egg production from time of mating and sperm retention: I have posted before that I have 2 S. alternans producing eggs post molt 3 years running w/o ever seeing a male in my care. I know summer is ending when it happens it has become so regualar. I don't know how common this is but there are quite a few instances of WC animals reproducing long after acquisition. Obviously, we need more data.

These fascinating discussions are few and far between. Let's not junk it up with too many hypotheticals. Personally, I'll take Galapahero's suggestions to heart every time as I haven't seen any stateside hobbyists with his level of continued success.

 

[tmcv]

Sigh. The topic is "Scolopendra reproduction", one that I'd like to see more of in this section so perhaps we can stick to the details and leave noted myriapod experts W-M out of the discussion(eye roll). The derailing of the topic started with the contention that the centipede first pictured was not receiving sufficient nutrition. I advise you to look again. It is quite well known among folks that have kept gravid females that external stress can have detrimental effects on the brood, i.e., the mother eats the eggs. Outside the terrarium centipedes hide themselves away very well to mitigate these stresses. In the terrarium they are subject to whatever we provide as well as our invasions(this can be seen again and again in this very forum when well meaning but impetuous keepers ignore the advice of others and continually check on a centipede with eggs). Often this involves a brood chamber without entrance or exit. If nutrition is such a large concern, why does the female never leave the eggs during development and create a space that discourages prey from entering? In my limited experience with successful broods I've never fed during care of eggs or while a tarantula/spider is guarding a sac or when a scorpion is carrying the newly hatched...as expected, they've done just fine

Regarding egg production from time of mating and sperm retention: I have posted before that I have 2 S. alternans producing eggs post molt 3 years running w/o ever seeing a male in my care. I know summer is ending when it happens it has become so regualar. I don't know how common this is but there are quite a few instances of WC animals reproducing long after acquisition. Obviously, we need more data.

These fascinating discussions are few and far between. Let's not junk it up with too many hypotheticals. Personally, I'll take Galapahero's suggestions to heart every time as I haven't seen any stateside hobbyists with his level of continued success.

Zonbonzovi, for sure if the animals really needed this amount of food they will prey instead being keep the eggs!!! I hope that this viridircornis don't spend 3 years to lay eggs as you said with your alternans, but i know it can happen!!!!

Thanks everybody (with a few exceptions!!) for the help, I'll post the evolution!!!