WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Monday, February 11, 2013

CARL MARSHALL: An unknown centipede/feeding time for the Tarantulas






Mondays and Tuesdays at the Butterfly Farm are pupae days. Over these two days we receive packages of pupae from various tropical country's around the world, which we then send out in the thousands to numerous zoological gardens around Britain, Europe and the United States to be displayed. Anyway, today while preforming this task we received a welcome surprise, as hidden within one of the African shipments was a small, yet very aggravated centipede of an unknown species - at present unknown to us that is.

It is about 5 cm in length (approx 2 inches), has orange legs and antennae and an orange and dark brown segmented body with 20 segments - see images for more details.  I have not yet had chance to determine nomenclature for this specimen, so if any readers believe they recognise this genus please post a comment. More detailed information can be given if required.  

Over the next few weeks there will be a follow up post, hopefully positively identifying this centipede.     

Also...

Feeding time for the Indian ornamental tarantula Poecilotheria regalis (Greek "Poikilos - spotted and "therion" - wild beast and "ragalis" - royal). Note the vibrant yellow and black warning colours on the undersides of the first and second pairs of legs. These markings are not a bluff as this arboreal species is extremely aggressive, and as far as the Theraphosidae family (tarantulas) go they have a very unpleasant and medically significant bite. P. regalis originates in southwestern India through the Nilgiri Hills and is also found in Sri Lanka.

No comments: