I doubt that they would be as aggressive as something like Dehaani. The South American giants are typically a bit more relaxed than the Asian giants.Is it skittish? Asian giants, especially Vietnamese ones, are very nervous, shooting around upon disturbance. I'm not sure if S. gigantea is also like that.
cf. stands for "similar but not the exact species", some use .aff for similar purpose.
Being lucky to compare both populations' animal, I'm pretty sure they are indeed different species, and cause the neotype locality(Venezuela) of S.gigantea made the Venezuela-Trinidid one most likely "scientifically correct".
Yes followed the current ID-key the Peru white leg red antenna one seemed to be gigantea, but when look deeper into the mouthpart and terminal legs that's a whole new story(which current ID-key did not mentioned to details like these)
Adding up two populations are far separated by two BIG nature barrier, the Amazon basin and Andes mountains, it make labeling the red body giant from Peru .cf or .aff before it got formally named make more sense to me.
Indeed the difference of galapagoensis from the islands and mainland are significant, noticed that since I had my private database sat up since senior high. The body ratio different is, well, you know. It's likely to be they adapting different lifestyle thus start to evolve into subspecies or even speciation is occurring.I'll get pics of terminal legs and all that from my S. galapagoensis so we can compare as soon as she emerges from her burrow(may be on eggs and if so she'll never emerge, she'll be eaten) but I'm not too convinced that these small factors like terminal spines, minor cephalic plate differences and behavioral differences are enough to definitively call them 2 different species.
Anyone who has ever seen a real Galapagos island S. galapagoensis knows they are far different from what is currently being labled and sold as S. galapagoensis. The coloration is far different, body build is slightly slimmer and from what I've read can be easily 24cm. The ones out of Paru are no smaller, white leg, robusta or galapo CF, I had a 26cm female I just sold off and my one from all my videos Helga is a tad over 20cm, maybe even 24cm if she's molting now.
S. hero are separated by 2 massive dry unpassible deserts as well as many massive mountains in NM in North America as well as the rio grand river basin yet they occer on both sides. I don't think a "nature barrier" would have any effect on a species like this with such astonishing adaptability that has been around for a millennium, plenty of time for a single species with many CFs to spread far and wide.
Now I'm not saying they are the same species, but I don't believe they are that different. The info we have avalible to us on all these giant SA pedes is unreliable, far too unorganized and scarce so following it can arise more questions on the subject then answers.
I have spent weeks in the middle of heros season trying to find specimens in a alleged heavily populated by heros area only to find a lone specimen so since you found a few in just 10 days tells me they must have pretty big numbers. Now angulata is like the polymorpha of SA so I'd bet that's why you probably found a lot more of them during your trip.
Thank you so much for posting these findings! Every little bit of info we can get on them is valuable as almost now one to my knowledge has done extensive work with the Trinidad specimens. So if you do get babies, I'll pay what ever you ask as this is the final variant I need to finish my work on this particular species, maybe what I'll sum up can clear at least a tiny bit of confusion.
I look forward to more post from you as this is the most interesting thing I've seen on AB in a while, you've got my attention sir. Hope all is well, thanks again for posting.
-Michael A. Dixon
I'd love to discuss this further in a PM, my FB name is Michael Dixon so shoot me a request when you get a chance. Look up mikeshouseofathousandlegs on there you'll find me if you have issues with just my name. I have dreads so that's a dead give away you have the right Michael haha.Indeed the difference of galapagoensis from the islands and mainland are significant, noticed that since I had my private database sat up since senior high. The body ratio different is, well, you know. It's likely to be they adapting different lifestyle thus start to evolve into subspecies or even speciation is occurring.
Very surprised to meet people having similar ideas, maybe we can discuss about our POV in private message or Facebook which I more used to.
However I'm not saying "minor" differences, knowing the fact that same centipede species can have large appearance difference I'm pretty caution about this part. However just the terminal leg spines of two population have differences so big which I actually dug out the rest of my white leg individuals to make sure I did not make mistake. My conclusion is that the spine pattern are big enough to tell them apart, left slide other ID-key feature. When I put the ID-key aside just comparing the difference of the 2 species It's like comparing S.japonica to S.mutilans, or S.dehaani to S.sp.Cherry Red.
Also I'm compare female to female specimen since there are some species having spine differences between two gender.
Couldn't be more envious of you! not only have you acquired some, one maybe gravid AND! you have had a dream trip id love to do! how do you even go about getting a wild caught specimen imported into another country legally?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.
Paying taxes, check out regulations,filled up paperwork, finding exporters and importers, that's about all you need to do to im/export animals.Couldn't be more envious of you! not only have you acquired some, one maybe gravid AND! you have had a dream trip id love to do! how do you even go about getting a wild caught specimen imported into another country legally?