OK, I'll be the first to admit there was clearly some insanity involved here. 
I was fairly certain that I have a male sc. alternans and a female sc. galapagoensis. Normally one wouldn't think to put them in the same terrarium together so see if they'd mate. However, I was both inspired by Todd's heros experiments and motivated by my own early observations to try this experiment.
Yes, I am very well aware that a sc. alternans and sc. galapagoensis would not likely result in a successful mating, but it's not like I have a plethora of specimens from which to choose from so I went with what I got.
Early Observations.
YEARS ago when I had the two gigantea colorforms, there were no online forums, much less any books on scolopendra sexing and mating so I was a learning as I went. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know they were the same species since one was sold to me as a sc. viridicornis and the other sc. gigantea. So I was really baffled by what I observed one night.
Their terrariums were butted right up against each other. They both had thicker gauge bars for the lid because they were tearing into the original mesh tops (can be seen at the top of this pic).
Both giganteas were at the top of their terrariums and quickly tapping antenna and biting at the bars. Obviously my thought was "oh no you don't, I'm not going to have you two kill each other."
And then, much to my surprise, the dark morph gigantea, climbed down to the bottom of it's terrarium, spun a web and deposited a small white mass into the center of it.
Had I known then what I know now, I would have removed the male from it's terrarium and placed the "female" (?) in there to see if it would pick up the sack. Instead I just stood there in stunned silence wondering what the 'heck' was going on.
Imagine that... I could have potentially cross-bred two colorforms of sc. gigantea! ARGH! :wall:
There are some important observations that can be made though.
First, the scolopendras on that night did not touch any other parts besides limited reach of their antennas yet the male still produced sperm.
Second, the male deposited the sperm despite no further tapping or encouragement by the female.
New Experiment.
In and effort to recreate that night, I built a wall of sorts. It was built of two rows of bars (bicycle spokes, cut and cleaned with rubbing alcohol) that were secured into two pieces of wood with drilled holes in them. The two pieces of wood had to be cut into very exact dimensions so that the bars would be very snug against the glass. The tricky thing was to space the bars far enough away from each other that the 'pedes could tap their antenna but not so wide so that they could get at each other.
One part that I think is key to any experiment is that there are two rows of bars. In looking at the anatomy of centipedes, the fangs are shorter than the antenna so with two rows they can touch, but not bite.
Here are some pics:
One problem I had was that the alternans was thin enough that he could actually squeeze himself through the space. Also, he was aggressive enough that he was actually bending the bars to create space.
It was nonetheless very interesting to see how they interacted with cage. Here was an obstacle that they could feel through but not pass through. The galapagoensis actually figured out a way to just climb over it - and did so quite regularly.
The results were that they got very close to each other, but never realized that there was another scolopendra on the other side of the bars. The galapagoensis was being extremely lethargic (very early pre-molt) and the alternans was very active. A few months later and it was the exact opposite, the galapagoensis was ridiculously active and the alternans was hibernating.
Perhaps if someone tries this experiment with two of the same species they'll have more luck, at least they'd be in the same cycle.
Anyways, ultimately this experiment didn't succeed (yet?) but as much as Todd's cross breeding experiments inspired me, maybe in some small way my experiment will spark someone to try something like this – hopefully with more success!
For your amusement I've uploaded a bunch of the videos of a pair of giant centipedes completely ignoring each other.
DOWNLOAD LINK
It's one .zipped folder about 126mb containing a bunch of .avi files.
There are some stressful moments when I had to grab the alternans to keep him from getting through the bars which you'll find amusing. I think I need to practice my one handed camera skills like arachnogod caco.
Anyways, cheers and I hope you enjoyed the read!
I was fairly certain that I have a male sc. alternans and a female sc. galapagoensis. Normally one wouldn't think to put them in the same terrarium together so see if they'd mate. However, I was both inspired by Todd's heros experiments and motivated by my own early observations to try this experiment.
Yes, I am very well aware that a sc. alternans and sc. galapagoensis would not likely result in a successful mating, but it's not like I have a plethora of specimens from which to choose from so I went with what I got.
Early Observations.
YEARS ago when I had the two gigantea colorforms, there were no online forums, much less any books on scolopendra sexing and mating so I was a learning as I went. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know they were the same species since one was sold to me as a sc. viridicornis and the other sc. gigantea. So I was really baffled by what I observed one night.
Their terrariums were butted right up against each other. They both had thicker gauge bars for the lid because they were tearing into the original mesh tops (can be seen at the top of this pic).
Both giganteas were at the top of their terrariums and quickly tapping antenna and biting at the bars. Obviously my thought was "oh no you don't, I'm not going to have you two kill each other."
And then, much to my surprise, the dark morph gigantea, climbed down to the bottom of it's terrarium, spun a web and deposited a small white mass into the center of it.
Had I known then what I know now, I would have removed the male from it's terrarium and placed the "female" (?) in there to see if it would pick up the sack. Instead I just stood there in stunned silence wondering what the 'heck' was going on.
Imagine that... I could have potentially cross-bred two colorforms of sc. gigantea! ARGH! :wall:
There are some important observations that can be made though.
First, the scolopendras on that night did not touch any other parts besides limited reach of their antennas yet the male still produced sperm.
Second, the male deposited the sperm despite no further tapping or encouragement by the female.
New Experiment.
In and effort to recreate that night, I built a wall of sorts. It was built of two rows of bars (bicycle spokes, cut and cleaned with rubbing alcohol) that were secured into two pieces of wood with drilled holes in them. The two pieces of wood had to be cut into very exact dimensions so that the bars would be very snug against the glass. The tricky thing was to space the bars far enough away from each other that the 'pedes could tap their antenna but not so wide so that they could get at each other.
One part that I think is key to any experiment is that there are two rows of bars. In looking at the anatomy of centipedes, the fangs are shorter than the antenna so with two rows they can touch, but not bite.
Here are some pics:
One problem I had was that the alternans was thin enough that he could actually squeeze himself through the space. Also, he was aggressive enough that he was actually bending the bars to create space.
It was nonetheless very interesting to see how they interacted with cage. Here was an obstacle that they could feel through but not pass through. The galapagoensis actually figured out a way to just climb over it - and did so quite regularly.
The results were that they got very close to each other, but never realized that there was another scolopendra on the other side of the bars. The galapagoensis was being extremely lethargic (very early pre-molt) and the alternans was very active. A few months later and it was the exact opposite, the galapagoensis was ridiculously active and the alternans was hibernating.
Perhaps if someone tries this experiment with two of the same species they'll have more luck, at least they'd be in the same cycle.
Anyways, ultimately this experiment didn't succeed (yet?) but as much as Todd's cross breeding experiments inspired me, maybe in some small way my experiment will spark someone to try something like this – hopefully with more success!
For your amusement I've uploaded a bunch of the videos of a pair of giant centipedes completely ignoring each other.
DOWNLOAD LINK
It's one .zipped folder about 126mb containing a bunch of .avi files.
There are some stressful moments when I had to grab the alternans to keep him from getting through the bars which you'll find amusing. I think I need to practice my one handed camera skills like arachnogod caco.
Anyways, cheers and I hope you enjoyed the read!
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