Shocktober continues with a period of unusually warm weather coupled with rain and more rain, although I guess I shouldn’t complain considering how dry it was over the summer. Last week’s animal was the most unlikely of blood suckers, if the form of the vampire moth. This week nowhere is safe, as horror mobilises a second column this time underwater, hope you guys enjoy.

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Issue #144 - Waterfall Centipede

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Arthropoda

Class – Chilopoda

Order – Scolopendromorpha

Family – Scolopendridae

Genus – Scolopenda

Species – cataracta

Related Species – Waterfall Centipedes are part of the Scolopede family which includes the Giant Amazonian Centipede (Scolopenda gigantea) (1)

Range - Waterfall Centipedes are found in shallow streams and pools across Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

#nowhereissafe

Waterfall Centipedes are large centipedes that reach a length of 20cm, and are covered in dull brown or grey armour, with a single pair of bright orange legs sticking out from each body segment. While most centipedes stay away from water, the Waterfall Centipede has a hydrophobic coating to its exoskeleton which means water slips off quickly when it emerges from bodies of water. Usually content with walking on the stream bed, the centipede can swim by undulating its body like an eel, usually below the water surface to avoid being picked off by predators such as hornbills.

To further evade predation the centipede spends most of the day asleep under a stone on shore, only moving into water when disturbed, or at night to hunt for its prey. While it is unknown what exactly the Waterfall Centipede preys on, it probably overpowers prey with the two hollow fangs on the front section that inject a quick acting venom into its victim. This venom is harmful to human beings, but is likely not fatal unless the person bitten is in poor health, very young or very old.

The breeding habits of this species are also unknown, but it can be assumed that they are very similar to other members of the genus Scolopenda. After fertilisation, the female probably finds a dry hole to lay her eggs in. From there she will keep a close vigil on her eggs, scaring off potential nest thieves and keeping fungal infections at bay by licking the shells clean until they hatch, before returning to the waterside to resume her aquatic lifestyle.

Nature’s Most Wanted #8 - Portuguese Black Millipede

The Portuguese Black Millipede (Ommatoiulus moreleti) is a small black millipede that reaches a length of only 4cm. As the name suggests the species in native to Portugal, but has spread, via hiding in shipments of timber, to South African and Australia in the early part of the 20^th century. Since arriving in these locations, particularly in Australia, the warmer weather and lack of predators has seen the millipedes population explode to plague proportions, although interestingly, this expansion of foreign millipedes has had little negative effect on native species in both areas (3).

Instead the Portuguese Black Millipede has turned its attention to agricultural land, and damages cereal crops, soft fruit and young plants as it scavenges for decaying matter. In addition, the millipedes sometimes shelter in bunches of grapes, and can ruin wine if ground down alongside the grapes. It’s there great numbers that cause the most problem however, with this particular species of millipede being attracted to lights when foraging at night, and as such they often come inside houses much to the annoyance of the people living there.

The numbers of millipedes became so high that in 2009 thousands of millipedes looking for food overtook over a mile of train track just outside Perth, and in 2013 an empty train shunted a stationary passenger train in Clarkson, West Australia due to crushed millipedes on the line causing the train to lose traction (4). Since then trains in areas facing plague proportions of Portuguese Black Millipedes now have specialised sweepers to remove the arthropods from the line. And more recently numbers of the millipedes are beginning to reduce thanks to a parasitic nematode worm Rhabditis necromena making the jump from native millipede populations to that of the invasive species.

Bibliography

1 - www.arkive.org

2 - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/amphibious-centipede-discovered-laos-scolopendra-cataracta-new-species/

3 - Griffin, T.T and Bull, C.M. 1995. Interactions between introduced and native millipede species in South Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 43: 129-140

4 - http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/australia-just-had-a-train-accident-thats-being-blamed-on-millipedes/279380/

Picture References

1 - https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/830b56a6e96218b7c7f2bcbe03a1b1acd0860613/100_774_1221_732/master/1221.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=3ca2f6634c2bb60d05d362894e0939e6

2 - http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/07/02/18/35E4192C00000578-3670509-image-a-44_1467481810302.jpg

3 - http://media.mnn.com/assets/images/2016/07/centipede-mouth.jpg.838x0_q80.jpg

4 - http://riddellscreeklandcare.org.au/Myriapods/PortugueseMillipede.jpg

Lurking in pools? Derailing trains? These two certainly have much to answer for. Next week we spend some time in the company of an animal that specialises in brain washing, but until then make sure to critic, comment and suggest future issues as well as making sure you check past issues in Impurest’s Bestiary.

Many Thanks

Impurest Cheese

Want more IGTA? For the last time we hung out with centipedes click here to meet the Giant Amazonian Centipede. Or for another maniac millipede, click here to meet the Shocking Pink Dragon Millipede.