Scolopendra cataracta
| Scolopendra cataracta | |
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| Species: | S. cataracta
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| Scolopendra cataracta Siriwut, Edgecombe & Panha, 2016
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Scolopendra cataracta (waterfall centipede) is a species of centipede in the family Scolopendridae that is currently only known to live in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam[1] It is the first known amphibious centipede, growing to up to 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in length and with a painful venomous bite.[1][2] It is commonly referred to as the "aquatic centipede".
Discovery
George Beccaloni is an entomologist and curator at the Natural History Museum, London, working with the A. R. Wallace insect collection and species in the orders Blattodea, Dermaptera, Mantodea, Orthoptera and Phasmida and Grylloblattodea and Mantophasmatodea in the order Notoptera.[3] In 2000, when on his honeymoon in Thailand, Beccaloni was pleased to find an individual of the species now recognised as S. cataracta near the Khao Sok National Park; his wife, an arachnologist at the Natural History Museum, was equally delighted.[4] Beccaloni described the centipede as "pretty horrific-looking: very big with long legs and a horrible dark, greenish-black colour" but what caught his attention was that it scurried into a stream rather than the forest when he turned over the stone it was hiding under on the stream bank[1] – unusual behaviour as centipedes typically avoid water.[2] It then ran along the stream bed and hid under a rock underwater.[1] After capturing the centipede, Beccaloni observed that it swam like an eel below the water's surface;[2] his discovery was greeted with scepticism by an expert on Scolopendra as these centipedes usually occur in dry habitats and no amphibious species of centipede was then known.[1]
Gregory Edgecombe, a colleague of Beccaloni's in London, and his Thai student Warut Siriwut collected two specimens near Laotian waterfalls and DNA analysis confirmed they belonged to a new centipede species which they named S. cataracta, from the Latin for waterfall.[1] There are only four known specimens of this species. In addition to Edgecombe and Siriwut's specimens, Edgecombe confirmed that Beccaloni's specimen from 2000 was S. cataracta, and the Natural History Museum turned out to have a Vietnamese specimen from 1928 which had been misidentified.[1] Beccaloni is the only person to have observed the centipede swimming and has hypothesised that its ecological niche is based on "this species [going] into the water at night to hunt aquatic or amphibious invertebrates."[2] The confirmation of the new species was published in the journal ZooKeys in 2016.[5]
Description
Scolopendra cataracta is a giant centipede, growing to around 200 mm (7.9 in) in length;[1] it has long legs and is described as having a greenish-black colour.[2] It displays escape reactions when exposed, taking refuge underwater; and has been observed both running along stream beds and swimming with eel-like horizontal undulations of its body. Out of water, water rolls off the centipede's body leaving it dry[1] as the surface is very hydrophobic. It is endemic to Southeast Asia, with specimens having been found in Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Venom
Members of the genus Scolopendra are active predators with painful bites which are rarely fatal in humans.[6][7] Envenomation occurs via the forcipules (located behind the mandibles) and typical Scolopendra venom contains serotonin, acetylcholine, haemolytic phospholipase A (a cardiotoxic protein) and a cytolysin.[8] Centipede bites are only life threatening in humans in cases of allergic reaction.[6]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Bates, M. (26 June 2016). "'Horrific' First Amphibious Centipede Discovered". National Geographic. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Holmes, O. (1 July 2016). "Giant swimming, venomous centipede discovered by accident in world-first". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ "Dr George Beccaloni – Curator, Orthopteroidea and Wallace Collection". Natural History Museum, London. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ Nijhuis, M. (3 July 2016). "It's always a joy to discover a new species. But there is a downside..." The Guardian. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
- ^ Siriwut, W.; Edgecombe, G. D.; Sutcharit, C.; Tongkerd, P.; Panha, S. (2016). "A taxonomic review of the centipede genus Scolopendra Linnaeus, 1758 (Scolopendromorpha, Scolopendridae) in mainland Southeast Asia, with description of a new species from Laos". ZooKeys. 590: 1–124. doi:10.3897/zookeys.590.7950.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ a b Bush, S. P.; King, B. O.; Norris, R. L.; Stockwell, S. A. (2001). "Centipede Envenomation". Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. 12 (2): 93–99. doi:10.1580/1080-6032(2001)012[0093:CE]2.0.CO;2.
- ^ Brandehoff, N.; Vohra, R.; Crebassa, L.; Graham, E. J.; Ramirez, R. (2014). "Centipede Envenomations: Clinical Effects and Treatment". Clinical Toxinology: 1–11. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6288-6_2-1.
- ^ Norris, R. L. (27 October 2015). "Centipede Envenomation". eMedicine. Retrieved 3 July 2016.