6.5" S. heros caught outside my apartment

toast4nat · Apr 14, 2014

Came home today and just as I was opening the door to my apartment this monstrosity crawled out of the siding. I've never seen a centipede this large before, so I obviously had to catch it. Not sure if I should keep it (never kept centipedes), sell it, let it go or what. It's quite impressive.

Cavedweller · Apr 14, 2014

What an impressive pede! I found one like that at Town Lake in Austin years ago. How'd you catch it?

toast4nat · Apr 14, 2014

Just grabbed that jar and scooped it in. It was kind of sluggish because a sudden cold snap hit today when a storm rolled in. I let it warm up and snapped some pictures but I ended up letting it go, I don't have the right set up for a pede.

Smokehound714 · Apr 14, 2014

Keep that baby, sex it, and get more pedelings! This species is quite valuable, i've seen specimens half that size being sold for 100 bucks.

IMO, it looks like it had a run in with a cat or some kind of predator, as the terminal legs and one of its antennae are damaged. Obviously it won the fight haha.

You should at least rehab it and let it get a molt in to restore the damage. As a popular species, you should be able to easily find a good care sheet. If im remembering correctly, these are similar in requirements to scolopendra polymorpha, prefer a drier setup, and need a water dish to drink from. Make sure the ventilation is excellent (lateral ventilation!). And dont forget a hide!

Richard McJimsey · Apr 14, 2014

Both antennae appear to be fine, the pede is grooming them in the photos. The terminal legs just appear distorted from the glass jar.

Good call on letting it go, maybe you'll find more one day.

stingray · Apr 14, 2014

Rick McJimsey said:
Both antennae appear to be fine, the pede is grooming them in the photos. The terminal legs just appear distorted from the glass jar.

Good call on letting it go, maybe you'll find more one day.

Agreed. Nice looking pede.

toast4nat · Apr 14, 2014

Yes it was grooming its antennae, seemed to be happy for a moment or two to be out of the dusty siding, but it looked miserable in that jar, so I let it go. It was a monster.

Here's some more pics; my kitten was quite interested. Took these right before I let it go.

beetleman · Apr 14, 2014

awwww......seems like it's trying to connect with the kitten...........NOT!!:=) ,yeah that was a nice pede at that.

Smokehound714 · Apr 16, 2014

Lol oh wow, hahahaha my eyes, what the. Well that totally messed with my head

Good on ya for letting it go.

I personally woulda kept her and let her grow to 8" haha. But for real though, 6.5 inches is still alarmingly huge, haha.

Jfaella · Apr 20, 2014

If you can catch more I'd be willing to buy or trade tarantulas for them or if you wanna get rid of that one

6.5" S. heros caught outside my apartment

toast4nat

Arachnosquire

Cavedweller

Arachnoprince

toast4nat

Arachnosquire

Smokehound714

Arachnoking

Richard McJimsey

Arachnoprince

stingray

Arachnobaron

toast4nat

Arachnosquire

beetleman

Arachnoking

Smokehound714

Arachnoking

Jfaella

Arachnopeon