I found some interesting millipedes today while I was out looking for insects/scorpions in the forest, so I thought I would post a couple pictures here. I think they belong to the genus
Brachycybe.
These photos were taken with a Canon PowerShot G9.
Ooh, they are pretty! I've seen a few millipedes around here but they are small and black. Were those orange millipedes large or small? I have 3 pictures I took of a big centipede in my back yard but I've had trouble with Photobucket and can't post them right now.
The centipide was about 15 cm long with a greenish brown body and orange legs and looked quite fierce. I've seen centipedes here as large as 18 cm but most are around 10 cm or so. The smaller ones have a reddish orange body and yellowy legs but I think they are simply younger forms of the big ones.
Those are some big centipedes you found. I find mainly small ones around here, but they can still pack quite a punch with their front legs (they can inject venom). I find mostly millipedes around here, some quite large (up to 10-12cm).
The orange millipedes I found today were pretty small, only around 3cm.
They just looked big in the pictures. I accidentally picked up a moderate sized centipede in some garden mulch once but thankfully it didn't sting me. I even rescued one from under the house when it was flooding. It looked dead but came back to life two days later. I didn't pick it up with my hands though.
We have pet milipedes- African Giant Milipedes- that are the length of an arm. They are adorable. Most people seem stunned and disgusted by the idea that we have milipedes as pets and that we think they are cute, but really, once you see their little round heads and their waving antenae and the way they rear up and then pounce on a piece of cucumber, you can't help but think they're cute.
Those are excellent pictures. Our camera can't take close ups like that, but I've been thinking of getting my own. How expensive is a Canon PowerShot G9?
Those African Giant Millipedes are pretty cool... We would sell them at the store where I used to work. Few people know that arthropods (Giant Millipedes, Emperor Scorpions, Rosehair Tarantulas, etc.) are some of the best pets you can get if you are limited in the amount of time, space, and money you can devote to pet care, and they are awesome to keep even if you do not have those limitations as well.
The
PowerShot G9 retails at $499, but you can get it for significantly cheaper if you look around for a bit. It is the best point-and-shoot camera on the market currently, comparable in quality to some DSLRs because of its high pixel count (12.1 million), 6x optical zoom, and lots of manual options. You don't buy any $1000 lenses for it, though.
The next camera below it, the
S5 IS, has a retail price of $399, but only has 8 megapixels. It does have twice the zoom power (12x), though. I decided I would rather pay a bit more for 50% more pixels, since they are usually what matters more in the end. You can buy a teleconverter lens for the G9 if you want some extra zoom power, but you can't increase the pixelage on a camera that's already been assembled.
I am finally able to assign a full scientific name to these millipedes if anyone's the slightest bit interested... They are Brachycybe producta.
Oh, I didn't know millipedes got so big. I've seen tarantulas and scorpions for sale in the bigger pet shops here; also giant cockroaches. Do all scorpions sting? I've seen pictures of rosehair tarantulas - they are very pretty. I have kept caterpillars as pets, including hairy caterpillars.
All true scorpions are venomous and can deliver a painful sting, which can even be life-threatening in some types. In many species (including the ones you see for sale as pets), however, the sting is comparable to that of a honey bee and isn't dangerous unless you are allergic to the venom. Scorpions that have robust pedipalps and thin tails tend to be significantly less venomous than those with slender pedipalps and thick tails - it all depends on whether they have evolved to use their strength or their venom as their primary defense mechanism.
There are other types of arachnids that are related to scorpions but are not venomous, such as pseudoscorpions, wind scorpions, and whip scorpions. They are usually quite harmless, though many of the Solifugids (wind scorpions) are capable of giving a very painful bite if handled carelessly.
I think I'm going to search for scorpions again tomorrow, because I didn't find any the first time. I'll post some pictures if I find any... The only common species around here is Uroctonus mordax.
Finally, as promised previously, here is a picture of the big tropical centipede in my garden last year.
There was an insect guy on Jay Leno tonight (filmed before the supertuesday) that showed off spiders, roaches and some kind of cricket (or 'manta'?). I think his name was Karner; a former Canadian.
Do you know who 'Pyton' is? A cartoon about a guy and his pet Python. An example can be seen at seriewikin.serieframjandet.se/index.php/Jan_Romare
Haha, that's awesome. Do you know which family/genus it belongs to? I don't know anything about Australian myriapods, though it looks somewhat similar to some centipedes I've seen around here (they were solid yellow-orange, though). I've read that stings from some types of large centipedes can be life-threatening for small children.
One time back in like 2001 I went on a vacation to the Hawaiian Islands, and I found a centipede that was about 15cm long and jet black in color with red banding. It was quite a sight, though I didn't dare attempt to handle it.
Unfortunately, I don't know what family/genus the centipede belongs to but I could see if there is a website that might tell me. I have also seen skinny little orangy brown centipedes but just thought they were baby centipedes.