Breeding centipedes
I would first like to thank Vincent from scolopendromorpha.com for his awesome photos and caresheets ;)

Breeding scolopendra's is not easy because there is not much information available about sexing them. There are a couple of things that help but mostly it's just trying and hope you're lucky. Before I put two scolo's together I look at a few things:

- The terminal legs (last pair of legs) of the male are often longer
- Females are usually much fatter

But as I said there are no certainties. The best way is to watch their behaviour when they are put together. If they immediately attack each other or if they run away from each other each time they meet it's usually because they are from the same sex. If they ignore each other, aren't scared and just explore the container there's a great possibility it's a couple. I leave them together for a couple of days in a container with lots of hiding places. Make sure they are both well fed to minimize the change of cannibalism.

I don't know much about the actual breeding process but I have witnessed 3 different 'styles'

1. The male and female hold each other with their terminal legs
2. The male starts walking backwards and drops a spermatophore. The female then picks it up with her mouth and inserts it herself
3. The male builds a spermweb and leaves some sperm on it. The female walks over it.

If the breeding is successful the female will lay eggs after 6 to 10 weeks. If this happens place her container on a dark place and don't bother her for at least 3 weeks because she will eat them if she's disturbed or feels threatened. Even with no disturbance the change of her eating the eggs (for no reason) is about 50%

After about 5 to 6 weeks the eggs transform into protonymphs. They are perfect white minitures of their mother. At this stage the chance of mother eating her youngs is only 10%

After another 5 to 6 weeks (usually the same time as it took the eggs to transform) the protonymphs get some colour and are now called pedelings or plings.

About two weeks later they molt for the first time. They are now ready to be removed from mother. They are also ready to be fed and take prey about half their own body size. I feed them dead prey the first week to make sure they will survive.