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Giant Desert Centipede |
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The first thing Craz did after being placed in the terrarium was explore every square inch of the enclosure. At the lower levels only, though. This centipede is unable to negotiate smooth vertical glass, which is a blessing. The top of the enclosure can generally be left ajar while caring for its other inhabitants without worrying that Craz will slip out unnoticed. Sometimes, though, this guy climbs to the top of the driftwood stump in the enclosure, and is able to reach the screen-covered lid, which it may explore for hours. Craz getting loose would be very bad... Jerry's wife uses a computer that is also in that lab. She probably would not see the humor in having a six-inch long centipede loose in that room... Craz moves very fast. You might think that a creature with more than 40 legs would be clumsy. But they don't hold this centipede down. Craz zips around the enclosure at a rapid pace. Craz's body is divided into 21 flat segments. Three of these are colored a caramel brown and are right behind the head. The other eighteen segments are black. The legs on the trunk, the antennae on the head, and the tips of the legs on the last segment of the body are colored a medium dark yellow. Notice that each leg is tipped with a sharp claw. Some sources report that these claws damage unprotected skin, and poison glands are located at the junction of each leg with the body. When the centipede travels over your skin, the claw may penetrate your skin, and poison may be deposited in the cut, producing local inflammation. Jerry has not tested this hypothesis... Next: Craz's Head... |
This sturdy fellow
was kindly collected for Jerry by a friend whose home is on the shores of a
large lake near Temple, Texas. That home is pestered by centipedes like
this one, so he's studying this specimen to learn about its habits.
Ultimately, the object is to discourage its presence near this friend's home by
eliminating its harborage- that is, the kind of shelter or home that
centipedes like- nearby. Before doing that, Jerry needs to know more about the
way centipedes take up housekeeping. In his twenty years of managing
pests, he's never had to deal with a serious centipede infestation like
this.
The photo in the upper left of this page was taken shortly after "Crazylegs" was introduced to his or her new home (it isn't known if this is a male or a female, yet). That new home is a terrarium in the EntomoBiotics lab in Round Rock, containing a floor of coarse bark chips, a large, flat, sunning rock, a hollow driftwood log, and a small pool of drinking and bathing water. Four snakes occupy the same enclosure, and they all seem to get along fine. A second centipede was introduced several weeks later, but was soon killed and eaten by another inhabitant of the enclosure (parts of the centipede's body were found in one corner of the enclosure).
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