Giant Scolopendra centipedes are bad to the bone and found in dry habitats over much of the neotropics. The biggest I have ever seen have been in the Caribbean. An old friend once told me the tale of the time he was in Aruba or some such place making a teaser shoot for a proposed TV program named Keeper and the Magic Zoo in which he would be the star, much like Marlin Perkins. Shortly before leaving the island he dressed up in a shirt and tie to meet some island officials at the airport. While doing so he spied a gigantic foot long centipede and wanted to show off so he got down on his hands and knees for some close up shots with his hand held camera. Scolopendras are fearless, so it rapidly crawled toward him. Needless to say he backed up but forgot about his tie which was dragging on the ground. The monster finally panicked and ran up his tie whereupon he strangled himself. I wish I had been there to see it!
Sleaze From: Texascavers <texascavers-boun...@texascavers.com> On Behalf Of Fritz Holt Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2019 11:16 AM To: texascavers@texascavers.com Cc: June Levy <kittymr...@aol.com>; Mandy Holt <geekazoidman...@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [Texascavers] critters in caves David’s comments raises a question I have. I have been wading Hill Country rivers (Frio, Nueces and Sabinal)and exploring their rocky cliffs and caves for 65 years. I have had encounters with rattlers, water snakes, various lizards and centipedes. I love them all but am especially fascinated with the large centipedes. The largest ones I have seen were between four and five inches long. I seem to remember their coloration was black and various shades of red, yellow and orange. I may have picked up one or two without gloves but was never bitten or stung. I assume they can inflict pain but guess I was lucky (as always) and would like some feedback on this. Are they harmful? Fritz Holt fritz...@gmail.com <mailto:fritz...@gmail.com> Sent from my iPhone On Jan 30, 2019, at 1:54 PM, David <dlocklea...@gmail.com <mailto:dlocklea...@gmail.com> > wrote: People, including cavers, often associate cave animals with bats. I think we often neglect the other critters. For example, name a cave that is devoted to the preservation of Red-headed Centipede. Or any other cave-dwelling centipede. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Scolopendra_heros.jpg I saw a 6 inch long centipede in Brehmer Cave near New Braunfels, around 1996. I remember the color patter was maroon and black, but can't remember which color was the dominating color - Maybe black with some maroon parts ? I can only imagine cavers with lots of experience have seen hundreds of these. Of course, you probably would not want to crawl around in a cave with 100's of venomous centipedes. Would you ? On a related note, I have not seen a horned-toad in the wild in over 30 years. And on a totally different note, Last night, I was driving around 2 a.m. in the morning from Houston to Gatesville ( northwest of Temple ) via the small towns around Milano, and I saw stars for the first time in almost a year. I did not have time to even get out of the car and look at the stars. There was still too much light on the horizon and from traffic to really get a good look at them. _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com <mailto:Texascavers@texascavers.com> | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
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