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.