Skippy´s millipedes

skippy666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
34
Hello to all friends of millipedes!

I am new here and I would like to show you some photos of my myriapods. I have been keeping them for about 8 years now and currently I keep more than 30 species, located in Europe. If you have any questions do not bother to ask me.

Anadenobolus monilicornis - one of my favourite, smaller one, but with stunning colors!


Anadenobolus monilicornis - juveniles, this species breeds very well in captivity


Trigoniulus corallinus - another smaller species, which breeds very well in captivity. I sometimes hate them, because those are masters of escaping from breeding box! On picture adult with juveniles.



Chicobolus spinigerus, medium sized millipede with very nice colors. When you put branches in terrarium, they nicely walk on it during the night.



Chicobolus spinigerus - and of course, it also breeds quite well in captivity



Spirostreptus servatius - for me one of the most outstanding species in hobby. They are large, long legged ones with astonishing color of front body! The most specimens in hobby are, unfortunately, wild caught.



Spirostreptus servatius - ... but there is always a hope for estamblishing it in captive bred lines, so here is one of its developing eggs. The most probably there are already juveniles in my breeding enclosure, but I will investigate it later.



Epiperiparus barbadensis - oh no, this is not a myriapod, but velvet worm! (Onychophora) ... captive bred! ... adult specimen on photo, my group now considering of about 13 specimens will hopefully breed soon. Hope to make these creatures more easy to get in captive bred lines!



Polyzonium germanicum, strange member of the family Polyzoniida, small and secretly living creature, some captive bred results were done already in my enclosures, but it is difficult with them.



Spirostreptus gregorius - one of the more common ones, relatively easy to keep and breed, lovely looking yellowish species, adult with juvenile on photo



Aphistogoniolus polleni - very often species being imported from Madagascar. This year I visited Madagascar and the only I want to say is ... that nature is in real danger :( so effort for breed this species in quantity instead of import it from wild is very important!



Coromus diaphorus - one of my favourite! Once I bought about 12 adult wild caught animals and I thought It will be very difficult to breed ... but I was wrong, this species is for me one of the most easy. It has around 1-year breeding cycle and currently I see another egg chambers approaching my CB line to F3!






Coromus diaphorus egg chamber with one of the first hatchling



Coromus diaphorus - baby booom!



Coromus diaphorus - adult with juveniles



Coromus diaphorus - molting chamber , be careful with observing the soil in your breeding boxes, you can destroy those funny soil balls and hurt the molting specimens!



Coromus diaphorus are similar to keep as the other Coromus species. Now I do not have C.vittatus in my collection, but I hope to add it again soon or later. On picture I was counting the juveniles.



Melaphe cypria - one of the most pretty polydesmids I have ever seen, relativelly large millipede endemic to island Cyprus. Unfortunatelly I was not able to breed it yet.



Spirostreptus spec. 1 - one of the most often bred millipedes around and a great choice for all beginners in this fascinating hobby.



Glomeris pustulata - if you want to try to keep and breed any of the Glomeridae family, this species is the great option to start. It is relatively easy, just keep the leaves humid and micro-biologically active. It breeds about 1-2 times a year and it takes around half of a year to reach an adult.



Spirostreptus spec. 8




Salpidobolus spec. Irian Jaya - very underrated species in captivity, very nice one in real!



Telodeinopus assiniensis



Nyssodesmus python - a present from a friend, very impressive species native to Costa Rica



Narceus gordanus "Ocal gold" - relatively new in my collection, secretively living deep in the substrate



Orthomorpha sp. Ao Nang, very nice looking medium sized flat millipede, easy to keep and breed, this is actually my forth captive bred generation



Orthomorpha spec. Ao Nang - fresh juveniles eating rotten leaves

 

skippy666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
34
Atopochetus dollfusi - one of my favorite, unfortunately difficult to keep alive breed in a first or second generation after wild caught specimens. But it looks like in every another generation the survival rate grows rapidly. One of the most beautiful species in captivity!



Atopochetus dollfusi - another view



Tonkinbolus caudulanus - just another small underrated beauty, it lives mostly hidden in rotten wood, but look at those colors again!



Sechelleptus lambertoni - orange colored captive bred juvenile



Centrobolus splendidus adult with a juvenile



Centrobolus splendidus - fresh babies enjoy the surface of rotten wood



Centrobolus spec. Mozambik - two forms, one classic with black pattern and one the most probably hypomelanistic. I have only one male which hatched in previous generation, here, in compare of both types



Centrobolus spec. Mozambik - another view of classic specimen and "hypomelanistic" male. I put him in a group with a 4 classic females. I hope to mate him with his daughters in possible way of gene transport.



Centrobolus spec. Mozambik - mom with offspring :)



Desmoxytes planata - and here comes dragon millipede! It is quite small species reaching around 2,5 to 3 cm, but its colors and morphology is just unbelievable!



Desmoxytes planata - mating



Desmoxytes planata - breeding , actually my own F4 generation



Desmoxytes planata - molting chambers

 

skippy666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
34
So, here we go, breeding of Spirostreptus servatius :astonished:
(well, I am not 100% sure the larger juvenile is S.servatius, because I have never seen it yet, but the egg and the smaller juvenile for sure is!)

 

skippy666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
34
Thank you.
Not yet. I wanted to establish a culture of them (I know only one more person who keeps this species here) so I have brought it here to Europe. I have received juveniles of small up to medium size, which are now reaching adults. Some of them are adults the most probably for a two months already and I expect the others will be in that size soon. I do not know how much time it takes to give a first birth, but I am looking forward to find first babies. They are doing very well, previously I kept P.novaezealandiae and it was difficult.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
274
Thank you.
Not yet. I wanted to establish a culture of them (I know only one more person who keeps this species here) so I have brought it here to Europe. I have received juveniles of small up to medium size, which are now reaching adults. Some of them are adults the most probably for a two months already and I expect the others will be in that size soon. I do not know how much time it takes to give a first birth, but I am looking forward to find first babies. They are doing very well, previously I kept P.novaezealandiae and it was difficult.
I'm also keeping a colony of E. barbadedsis and hoping they will breed soon. They seem to be doing well so far.
I have also kept P. novaezealandiae. I managed to keep them alive for quite a while, but then they all died simultaneously. I can only assume it was a pathogen or fungi issue. I'll be receiving more in a few months to try again with a different method.
Best of luck with all of your wonderful collection :)
 

Patherophis

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 24, 2017
Messages
407
M. cypria and that hypomelanistic C. sp. Mozambique are absolutely amazing.
 

skippy666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
34
Thanks for support!
Currently I have babies mated from pairing hypomelanistic C.sp.Mozambique x 4 classic females. I have found several hundred of offspring, which should reach adult in second half of the year 2020 I hope the male will be still alive so I can mate him with his daughters. I would like to test this gene, it is very interesting topic even from a scientific point of view, research papers focused on aberrant forms of millipedes are very sparse.

Here I add one more lovely photo of living candies - Rhopalomeris cf. carnifex. I use the cf. (confer) symbol, as far in the wild you can find more than 5 different forms of the "same species" and it needs to get resolved.

 
Last edited:

Patherophis

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 24, 2017
Messages
407
Thanks for support!
Currently I have babies mated from pairing hypomelanistic C.sp.Mozambique x 4 classic females. I have found several hundred of offspring, which should reach adult in second half of the year 2020 I hope the male will be still alive so I can mate him with his daughters. I would like to test this gene, it is very interesting topic even from a scientific point of view, research papers focused on aberrant forms of millipedes are very sparse.

Here I add one more lovely photo of living candies - Rhopalomeris cf. carnifex. I use the cf. (confer) symbol, as far in the wild you can find more than 5 different forms of the "same species" and it needs to get resolved.

Good luck, it would be great to see hypomelanistic line established. And even in case original male wont be around anymore, there is still good chance of hypomelanism manifesting in next generation after breeding his offspring with each other.
 

davehuth

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 24, 2017
Messages
278
Great to see someone working so carefully and successfully with Polydesmids. Thanks for sharing your great photos, and I hope you continue to update this thread with what you've learned. Cheers!
 

skippy666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
34
Okay, here are another photos :)

Development of the brood of Centrobolus splendidus, I like how it hides it in its poops



Poratia digitata are common in tropical vivariums, it is very small millipede reaching just around 5-8 mm. In bioactive setups it usually harvests the rotten leaves on base of living plants and algae on rotten wood



Platydesmida sp. , very interesting millipede species ... I have received several specimens from a friend, but I was not successful in breeding them. The only I know is several imported females gave a birth of offspring, but its survival rate was not high



Its head is absolutely adorable!
 

Arthroverts

Arachnoking
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
2,462
Wow, just wow! You are the envy of us U.S millipede enthusiasts! Those are some amazing species; I wasn't even aware dragon millipedes had made it into the hobby yet!
I applaud your captive breeding efforts. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for sharing,

Arthroverts
 

skippy666

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
34
Here are some new photos and updates :)

Archispirostreptus gigas breeding is doing well. It is very slowly growing species, but at least the offspring is not dying. I did several groups considering of 5 males and 10 females and I hope I will reach next generation. I expect it will take more than 2 years to reach the results ...now they are just about 10cm.


Epibolus pulchripes
... the all time classics, easy to keep and breed, sometimes little boring species living in the leaf litter. This is actually my third generation which reached adult about now, so I am looking forward to find some new offspring in autumn or winter.


Desmoxytes planata, the dragon millipedes, are breeding like crazy. Here is a part of my colony. On photo are specimens of about subadult or fresh adult stage, so it is really the smaller one, but beautiful


New species in my collection is this unidentified species from Madagascar. It is smaller one, around 3-4cm in adult, but they are nicely colored. I prefer smaller species to be honest, so I hope It will breed and get established in hobby.

 

Arthroverts

Arachnoking
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
2,462
Agreed @smctutrabhhdwscab. Velvet Worms hopefully will become available in the US very soon though (PM me if you want to know more). I can see no breakthrough for millipedes though unfortunately.

Thanks,

Arthroverts
 
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