Centipede
Fast, predatory and venomous, with one pair of legs to a segment. Not the same animal as a millipede, and not handled the same way.
Photo by Jackson Nugent, CC BY 2.0
Overview
A centipede is a predator first and an exhibit second. One pair of legs to a segment, 21 to 23 pairs on the big Scolopendra species, and it hunts crickets, worms, snails and roaches, with lizards, toads and mice on the menu for the largest. Scolopendra gigantea reaches 12 inches and lives about ten years.
The venom is real, and it is delivered by the front pair of legs rather than by jaws. Those legs are modified into forcipules, they are hollow, and the bite of a big Scolopendra is strong enough to seriously wound a person. That is the reason this one lives behind glass and gets moved with tongs.
Temperament
Fast, nocturnal and reactive. A centipede that feels the substrate move will either bolt for cover or turn toward it, and there is not much in between. Most keepers see theirs at feeding time and then not again until the next one.
It does not settle down with handling and time does not make it tamer. That is not a fault in the animal, it is what a centipede is, and it is better known before than after.
Care and grooming
Feed live insects and take out whatever is left. A cricket loose in with a moulting centipede will chew on it, and that is a real cause of injury rather than a theoretical one.
Humidity is the daily job. Centipedes have no waxy layer on the cuticle, so water goes straight out through it and they dry out in a way most pets never do. Damp substrate, a water dish, and a lid that holds moisture without cutting off the air.
Living and exercise
Escape proof is the whole brief. They are strong, they are flat enough to use a gap you would not look at twice, and a lid that merely rests on the rim is not a lid. Clips or a locking catch, every time.
Deep substrate under that, because a centipede spends the day in a burrow it dug rather than in a hide you bought. Six inches or more gives it somewhere to go and it will use all of it. Move it with long tongs or by driving it into a container, never with a hand.
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