son of a diddlydoodle!

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Jul 4, 2005
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I was watering some plants in pots I grew from seeds, I keep thinking I'm going to use them later because I always feel like I'm going to move. There is a hole I always look at when I water that sits between two trees, Jachin and Boaz, ..sorry, clowning around, I'm still fired up! I said, "what the diddly, let's see if there's anything in there, I want to look at a toad or two." I stood there as the water was going down the hole and said to myself, "Hahahaha, wouldn't that be funny if a giant centipede came out of there, ...hahahahahaha." I walked over to the side of the house to look at something for about 5 minutes, "oh, forgot the water running." I looked down the hole and there was a giant centipede sitting there! I said, "Nobody will believe this." So I ran and got my camera in the house, risking the pede not being there anymore. It was still there so I got some shots.






AND I saw the toads lol, I guess they were living with the pede, unless there's another room down there.

 

Dillon

Arachnobaron
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Jan 18, 2008
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Thats so unbelievable. :liar:

Thank god you got pics to justify your statements. LOL :clap: :clap:

Awesome man! :worship: :worship:

:eek: :eek:
 

PoPpiLLs

Arachnobaron
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Galapoheros is that S. heros it looks amazing, I really want some more of those I managed to kill the 3 I got from Andrew I think I kept them to moist :(
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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I know, they can kick the bucket on you and leave you scratching your head. I think more people have a difficult time keeping pedes compared to Ts and scorpions. My subspinipes and alternans are practically maintenance free though. I seem to have to watch the heros a little more and not keep it too wet or too dry. I kinda feel like putting this one back in the hole since I have several already but it is an awesome looking specimen, second biggest one I've seen, not sure what I'm going to do yet. Those toads are probably wondering where their master is. I took a couple of more pics, it's hard to capture the size of stuff like this with a camera.

 

zonbonzovi

Creeping beneath you
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Garsh! You must live at the epicenter of heros land. One pic looks like its premolt, but the next shows red markings on the otherwise blue/black tergites- is that just glare? Any idea of the toads' ID in the shared apartment? If you have trouble finding another living situation for it, I may be able to help you;)
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Prob just glare you're looking at, yes there are some red/orange areas, the pede has an "old" look to it, some discoloration here and there. I'll post a few more pics in a minute.

I put it in a 5 gal I used to have a scorpion in. The red/orange looks like loss of color that tends to be around the spiracles, I've seen it in other big old castaneiceps too.



 
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beetleman

Arachnoking
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Jan 5, 2005
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:clap: wha who!! awesome pede! a very nice find indeed,that's great ya don't have ta look very far for these guys:D
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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I usually do have to drive to a creek bed but they ARE around my house, just hard to find. I've stopped looking for them though because I'm full right now. @Zonbon, those are standard Gulf Coast Toads.
 

zonbonzovi

Creeping beneath you
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Thanks G- I'm always interested in creatures that tolerate roomates for future experimentation. The sunlight really brings out the tergite flavors in that there pic.
 

Androctonus_bic

Arachnoprince
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Jan 11, 2005
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Just courious... what happen with your area? All the pedes looks like more big and has a different coloration than the other ones...

Congratulations with finding!
 

KyuZo

Arachnoprince
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Jan 3, 2007
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wow, that thing is amazing!

and those isopods combine with the pede make things look prehistoric.
 

german shepard

Arachnosquire
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Dec 17, 2007
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What a beauty!

WOW! Is all I can say, what a beautiful Pede! Colors are a litte different than mine (have a 5" and 8") Heros Castinecips, the body coloration is amazing. Once again someone on the AB has amazed me with pics. I really need to buy a camera and show off some of mine. G, by the way how large is he/she? The one pic with you holding the cork bark, pede looks almost as large as your thumb. Monster Heros and I wish they would start migrating up here to north Texas in the Fort Worth area<><><> Thanks for the great pics, Marty
(Don't take this the wrong way) But you can ship 'em up my way any day!
 

Travis K

TravIsGinger
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Thanks, now I hate where I live even more:(


Sweet Find, and Great Pics!
 

SeanJo

Arachnosquire
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Sep 22, 2004
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Man I wish we could find some even half that large in my area of Texas. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but the biggest pede I've ever seen near where I live (just south of Houston) was about 2 inches in my pool, probably around 1993 -_- Since then all I can ever find are little stone centipedes under rocks/wood that I haven't seen bigger than 1". That's a great find though, I'm very jealous :)
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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@ KyuZo, Ha, "prehistoric", I was thinking the same thing when I saw the tail-end of that isopod there, it looks like a "swimmer" tail, like on a lobster or crawdad ...something left behind I guess. Hey Andro, it is a weird one not like the rest I see. I was fired up when it popped up. I just thought it was cool that I was thinking about a pede popping up, and then there it was! But, the excitement over. It's a big one but it's not really huge like another I've seen, ...and they say they have had bigger ones at the store where I bought the biggest one I've ever seen. G.shepard, they should be around there, wherever there is bedrock, I read there is a spot just southeast of Dallas where they can be found. SeanJo, Somerville Lake is the closest to you that I've heard of where they can be found according to Graham here on the AB.
 

skips

Arachnobaron
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do you know anything about those toads? Like, are they particularly big or bad tasting? Why wouldnt the pede destroy them with a vengence?
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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I've wondered about that too. There could've been another room down there. Also, this pede was pretty fat when found, and there are drought conditions here in C tx. It made me wonder if it had decided to eat one of the toads, or even more toads as time goes on. Whatever the situation, this I can tell you 100%, no toad is going to eat the pede, it's too big. The pede, over time, can "choose" to attack and eat part, or all of a toad whenever it wanted to. With the drought conditions, the toads and the pede have no choice but to share the same space deep underground where there is moisture. Not so for baby pedes though, I've seen a baby castaneicep pede get licked up by a toad really fast, like a water snake eating a young Bullfrog and then, later, see an adult bullfrog eat a baby water snake, ..same thing.
 
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