Neil TW
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2012
- Messages
- 24
Since I'm crazy enough, this summer vacation I went to Trinidad to find my dreaming centipedes, Scolopendra gigantea (black morph/dark morph/or whatever you like to call them).
Eventually found out they are ridiculously rare, total 10 night search and 6 day search only 3 living specimen were found.
Very luckily a friend in Trinidad will take care of the 2 individuals I obtain from an off-shore island and do the export job so all I need to do is wait for their arrival in the near future.
Well, let's focus on the species.
First, they are MASSIVE. Both individuals I obtain are female, easily hit solid 24cm body length when fully fed. This size is enormous for matriphagy species(or at least I believe they are) in the wild since they usually mate young, breed young, and die young. While a dead male specimen was found on the road of Chaguaramas, fully dehydrated but still hitting solid 22cm body length.
Second, the population is small, and obviously they aren't the dominant species of the area but S.angulata. No idea because the compete between species limited their number or the niche of lifestyle limited their number, or both. Besides that most of the habitat are in military restricted area which you can hear gunshot all the day(they're just practicing, but entering the area and got into big trouble is very likely to happen)
Third, they're nasty tempered. While most South American species, included the Peruvian giants(galapagoensis, gigantea "white leg", or robusta) all choose to run when provoked unless captured, these mighty black giants just stand there are lift their body up like cobras posting defensive gesture, then bite when they can.
Fourth, detail characteristic of the specimen are very different the S.gigantea"white legged form", alone with the far distance between their region and the "gap" filled by galapagoensis, I'm pretty sure they are different species. After talking with some researchers, the neotype of S.gigantea comes from Venezuela, which likely means S.gigantea"white legged from" should be labeled as S.cf.gigantea before they are formally described, but that's another thing not too related to this topic.
Last, unlike most giants I encountered before, they really are climbers, which Actually I encountered 1 individual hanging on 90 degree wall eating a fruit(yes, fruit, which I don't know which kind.), it's obvious it went down to the bottom of the cave, picked a fruit which fell into the cave, and carried it all the way up to the wall to feed.
And last but not least, one of the individual seemed to be gravid IMO, finding no male specimen all I can hope is to get a clutch of captive-born baby from her. Otherwise the holy giant pede will still be the holy giant pede, likely forever.
The compare photo between the obvious 2 different species is one S.angulata mature female alongside a S.gigantea.
Eventually found out they are ridiculously rare, total 10 night search and 6 day search only 3 living specimen were found.
Very luckily a friend in Trinidad will take care of the 2 individuals I obtain from an off-shore island and do the export job so all I need to do is wait for their arrival in the near future.
Well, let's focus on the species.
First, they are MASSIVE. Both individuals I obtain are female, easily hit solid 24cm body length when fully fed. This size is enormous for matriphagy species(or at least I believe they are) in the wild since they usually mate young, breed young, and die young. While a dead male specimen was found on the road of Chaguaramas, fully dehydrated but still hitting solid 22cm body length.
Second, the population is small, and obviously they aren't the dominant species of the area but S.angulata. No idea because the compete between species limited their number or the niche of lifestyle limited their number, or both. Besides that most of the habitat are in military restricted area which you can hear gunshot all the day(they're just practicing, but entering the area and got into big trouble is very likely to happen)
Third, they're nasty tempered. While most South American species, included the Peruvian giants(galapagoensis, gigantea "white leg", or robusta) all choose to run when provoked unless captured, these mighty black giants just stand there are lift their body up like cobras posting defensive gesture, then bite when they can.
Fourth, detail characteristic of the specimen are very different the S.gigantea"white legged form", alone with the far distance between their region and the "gap" filled by galapagoensis, I'm pretty sure they are different species. After talking with some researchers, the neotype of S.gigantea comes from Venezuela, which likely means S.gigantea"white legged from" should be labeled as S.cf.gigantea before they are formally described, but that's another thing not too related to this topic.
Last, unlike most giants I encountered before, they really are climbers, which Actually I encountered 1 individual hanging on 90 degree wall eating a fruit(yes, fruit, which I don't know which kind.), it's obvious it went down to the bottom of the cave, picked a fruit which fell into the cave, and carried it all the way up to the wall to feed.
And last but not least, one of the individual seemed to be gravid IMO, finding no male specimen all I can hope is to get a clutch of captive-born baby from her. Otherwise the holy giant pede will still be the holy giant pede, likely forever.
The compare photo between the obvious 2 different species is one S.angulata mature female alongside a S.gigantea.
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