| Offered As | Single, 2 Count, 3 Count |
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Scolopendra subspinipes 'piceoflava'
Centipedes, InvertebratesBlack Leg Piece of Lava Centipede (Scolopendra subspinipes ‘piceoflava’) For Sale
Price range: $375.00 through $1,030.00
Field collected Scolopendra subspinipes ‘piceoflava’ — the black-legged form of the Piece of Lava, with the dark legs held against the orange-red body that gives the morph its name. Arriving anywhere from 4–10 inches depending on the individual. Not captive bred.
Venomous. Advanced keepers only. Scolopendrids are fast, defensive and are never handled. House singly in a tightly latched enclosure — a centipede will exploit any gap it can flatten into.
S. subspinipes is among the more defensive species in the hobby and its venom is medically significant. Keep on deep moist substrate with a hide and a shallow water dish, and feed roaches or crickets every 5–10 days.
Quantity-managed listing: the specimen you receive is representative of the group, not an individually pictured animal.
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Care questions
- What does this centipede eat?
- Millipedes, and effectively nothing else. Edentistoma octosulcatum is a dietary specialist and will not reliably accept crickets or roaches. A supply of appropriately sized feeder millipedes needs to be established before the animal arrives, not after.
- Why does it look like a millipede?
- Because that is how it hunts. The flattened, heavily armoured body lets it move among millipedes without triggering their defences — one of the clearest cases of aggressive mimicry among the centipedes.
- Is it venomous, and can it be handled?
- It is venomous, as all centipedes are, and it is not a handling animal. Unusually for a scolopendrid it moves slowly, which makes it easier to work around, but the enclosure still needs a secure escape-proof lid.
- What setup does it need?
- A terrestrial enclosure with moisture-retentive substrate at moderate depth, flat hides and cork bark that mimic the leaf-litter habitat it lives in. It is secretive and will spend most of its time concealed.
- How escape-proof does a centipede enclosure need to be?
- Completely. Centipedes are strong, persistent and can exploit a gap far smaller than they look capable of. Use a locking lid, seal cable and vent gaps, and check the enclosure every time it is opened. Full centipede care guide.
- Are centipedes dangerous to keep?
- They are venomous and the larger species deliver a genuinely painful bite. They are not handleable animals under any circumstances. Work with tongs, keep the enclosure secure, and treat them as a look-only species.
- What do centipedes eat?
- Live prey, usually appropriately sized insects. Some specialists are far narrower than that — the millipede-eating species we stock will not accept normal feeders, and its listing says so explicitly. Read the specific listing before ordering.
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