Scolopendra hardwickei mating

I mated my sexed adult pair last night. It was an amazing experience, incredible to watch. I am proud to say I'm probably only the 5th or 6th person in the world to even attempt breeding this species. Enjoy the videos.

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An interesting bit of information: when they first encountered each other I noticed the male giving the female a couple of very gentle "bites" near her rear end. I wonder if this is the centipede equivalent of male scorpions stinging the female prior to mating? Also, the female is smaller and much more slender than the male. This surely puts to bed the long-held myth of males being smaller and less robust than females. I also remember Steven posting a picture of a male and female and similarly, his female was a lot more slender looking than the male. By the way, this female is a different one from my big girl that gave me a clutch last year - that one unfortunately escaped from her enclosure about a month ago and has not been seen since

Congratulations on the successful mating.
Glad to see people trying to breed this species.

How big are the pair? Also, do you plan to simulate climate changes to get the female to lay eggs(and did you do anything before the pairing)? I don't think you did anything with the last female that had the clutch, not knowing she would have it, right?
I ask because I'm actually going to attempt pairing the few I have as well.

Sucks to hear the big girl escaped. That's a really painful loss.

gavin, sorry to hear about the lost mom .
i will be attempting to breed these guys as well. mine will need to molt two more times before they are ready. how big is the female and the male in the video?

Wow, look at that big 'ol pearl, lol. It was interesting to watch her 'hump' the sperm packet. I've only ever seen them drag their genital region over the packet. Fingers crossed for you

Way to go! Looks a lot like the way Sc. heros mate, pretty standard Scolopendra mating I guess, always exceptions though, good luck!

btw there was somebody else that had vid of the male pinching around on the female, I forgot who posted it.

damn so lucky, wish I could get some of these babies! haha! love the colors, and the behavior is so interesting!

Thanks for the comments guys. The male is about 20cm BL, the female about 18cm.

I found the male inexplicably dead today. He was running around looking perfectly fine just yesterday.

Oh that sucks! Sorry for ur loss, he probably couls have mated more . Any idea why he passed so suddenly?

Do you think your local uni would be interested in doing pathology on it. It's probably something they never see...it might pique their interest.

I'm sorry to hear about your lost, Gavin. hopefully the female will give you a good size clutch.

Fingers crossed.