Scolopendra gigantea pedelings

Well, after about two months of waiting i can finally make some noise in my room. I've been trying to keep quiet as i didn't want to loose this lot of eggs due to the mother being disturbed and eating them. That shouldn't be a problem now, they ate the mother instead! I'm still really suprised that they can eat at this age, i always assumed that they wouldn't eat until they molted out to proper "pedelings" and not nymphs. They ate every bit of the mother, except for the skin, i'll post a photos of what's left later. I'm not sure if the mother was killed by the pedelings, or that she just died of natural causes, maybe dehydration as she hadn't moved from the spot she laid the eggs, so that meant no water for about 9 weeks. I'm very pleased though, i'd happliy have lots of pedelings that one large pede, i havent counted them yet, but there seems to be a fair number of them. I'm probably going to leave them together until they molt, i'm not sure, but they seem to all clump together for a reason (protection, cleaning?). Anyway, heres a few photos, i'll post some more as they get older.










Cheers,

!!!!! UGLY !!!!!


really ugly little maggots tmo
to bad they ate the mother,... seems almost like a routine with "Gigantea"
plings :? why don't we hear much about other specie doing this ?



PS:
ow yeah Dan,
remember i mailed you about the "real" gigantea not much beeing bred,...
A german hobbyist has mated the "real" gigantea's ! so much for the idea of them beeing all males

Hi Steven,

did he mate them and have them produce eggs, or just witness them in the act of copulation between two individuals? Becasue if it was just copulation, plenty of animals are know to be homosexual every now and again! It is wierd that there really aren't many/any cases of the "normal" S. gigantea producing eggs. Maybe if they are males and females, it is just a case of wrong conditions etc.

and yes, they are ugly little things, especially when they have their stomachs full with their mother! I know El Johano had the same recently, how long did it take for your "maggots" to molt out into pedelings?

Cheers,

bitter sweet pics

but then again, last time i checked, 30 > 1, so it's not all about the crying

wish you lived in the states.... ;P

Congrats with the plings

Are you going to sell/trade some??

Vincent said:

Congrats with the plings

Are you going to sell/trade some??

Click to expand...

*shakes fist a Europeans et al*

=P just jealous, that's all

Hi Vincent,

I will be trading them, but not until they've had one moult, or maybe two, i'll see how hardy they are looking. I'm interested in trades for any pedes i haven't got (see here ) (or more i have only a few of!), or any interesting true spiders (Heteropoda, Cupiennius, Latrodectus etc).

Cheers,

nice plings

Nice job on the little ones. i would love to take one of theose wee little babes of your hands for you. maybe i can accomadate one of your collection needs. i also see that u have a tiger leg or two "those are nice!"
i want one of those

all i can offer for trade is a box full of black widows :razz:
seriously though. thats all.

I also am very jealous, I'd love to snag one of those but not for the several hundred
dollars they go for here in the States!

Congratulations!
Very strange behavor, must have some explanation. I don't really believe it is dehydration or stress from laying eggs. It is not uncommon for inverts to cannibalize their mother, gives them a good start in life I guess. What I am curious about is how she dies....

Mine moulted after about 2 weeks (I am useless at keeping records....).

Wow..I would love to have a couple of those...Kind of hard to find here in the USA tho "Sigh"