Scolopendra oraniensis - European giant centipede

Another example of “careful what you might encounter when you look under dead pieces of wood”… This centipede is one that you should avoid getting bitten by, it might hurt. We found it on a rainy Spring day on the shores of a barrier lake in Algarve, Portugal.

comments (3)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Such a stunning creature, could be from another planet! Do you wear gloves when flipping rocks? Posted 4 months ago
1. pysailor
  
  Giant Tortoise
  
  Usually we don't wear gloves, since we don't expect anything dangerous. Sometimes flipping logs happens with the help of a stick. If anything appear beneath a rock or piece of wood, it's mostly just beetles, ants, sowbugs, earwigs or snails. Encountering a scorpion or scolopender is a rare exception. Maybe in certain habitats where poisonous creatures are more likely we would wear gloves, like basically in most of Australia ????
  
  To be fair, it's usually my partner who does the flipping - I just come running at the cry of “Quick, look what I found!”, brandishing my DSLR.
  
  Small related anecdote: last spring in northern Italy we were strolling over a meadow sprinkled with old deciduous trees, me ”hunting” for Western green lizards, my partner flipping dead wood looking for insects - in a completely “harmless” habitat, right?. Only that one of the fallen branches had apparently been part of an Oak processionary nest and still contained some (unseen) hairs - the hand kept stinging for the better part of a week ???? Posted 4 months ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    Really clever, outsourcing the danger to your partner, will give that a try.
    Thanks for the info ;) Posted 4 months ago