6 Animal Specimen Collection Set - Angel Fish, Clamworn, Newt, Centipede, Dragonfly, Golden Scrpion

Real Angel Fish - Pterophyllum scalare, Clamworm (Slender Ragworm - Nereis pelagica), Oriental Fire Belly Newt - Cynops orientalis, Red Headed Centipede - Scolopendra subspinipes, Chinese Golden Scorpion - Mesobuthus martensii, Dragonfly Scarlet Skimmer - Crocothemis servilia specimen encased in clear lucite material. The specimens are crystal clear, indestructible and transparent. Safe, authentic and completely unbreakable product put real specimens right at your fingertips!

Anyone can safely explore the specimens from every angle.
It is clear enough for microscope observation.

Length of the Fish from head to tail is 4.5 cm (1.8 inch). 

Length of the Worm is 19 cm(7.5 inch).

Length of the Newt from head to tail is 6.0 cm (2.4 inch). 

Length of the Centipede body is 7.5 cm(3 inch).

Length of the Scorpion 4.7 cm (1.9 inch).

Length of the Dragonfly body is 3.7 cm (1.5 inch) and the wings stretch to 6.5 cm (2.6 inch).

Size of each acrylic block is 7.5x7.5x1 cm (3.0x3.0x0.4 inch).

Each one comes with a cardboard box for easy storage.

Weight of each lucite block is 60 gram and 260 gram in total with packing box.

This is a handmade real animal specimen craft. Each one will be a bit different (specimen size, color and posture) even in the same production batch.
The pictures in the listing are just for reference as we are selling multiple pieces with same pictures.

It is an ideal learning aid for students and kids and also a very good collectible item for every body. 

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Angel Fish - Pterophyllum scalare

Family:   Cichlidae (Cichlids), subfamily: Cichlasomatinae
Order:   Perciformes  (perch-likes)  Class:   Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)

FishBase name: Freshwater angelfish

Max. size:   7.5 cm

Environment:   benthopelagic; freshwater; pH range: 6.0 – 8.0; dH range: 5 - 13

Climate: tropical; 24 – 30°C; 6°N - 10°S, 78°W - 51°W

Importance:   fisheries: ; aquarium: highly commercial; price category: not marketed/unknown

Resilience:   High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months(tm<1)

Vulnerability:  Low vulnerability (10.00).

Distribution:   South America: Amazon River basin, in Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, along the Ucayali, Solimões and Amazon rivers; rivers of Amapá (Brazil), Rio Oyapock in French Guiana; Essequibo River in Guyana. Morphology:   Body compressed and disc-shaped; dorsal and anal spiny rays increasing in length from anterior to posterior part of the fin; first branched rays also very long; body height at anal fin level 1.07 to 1.29 times; body color silvery with dark vertical bars (7 in juveniles, 4 in adults).

Biology:   Inhabit swamps or flooded grounds where the aquatic and riverine vegetation are dense and the water is either clear or silty. Its color is deeper in clear water. One of the most popular of all the tropical aquarium fish. Maximum length 15 cm. Aquarium keeping: in groups of 5 or more individuals; keep pairs in small tanks for breeding; minimum aquarium size 100 cm.

Dangerous:   harmless

Clamworm (Slender Ragworm - Nereis pelagica)

·  Phylum: Annelida

·  Class: Polychaeta

·  Subclass: Errantia

·  Order: Phyllodocida

·  Family: Nereididae

·  Scientific name: Nereis pelagica

Characteristics:

The slender ragworm Nereis pelagica is 6-21 cm long and has 30-100 segments with thin hairs (chaetae) on each segment. The legs, parapods, are positioned closer together than for instance the legs of Hediste diversicolor. A clearly visible blood vessel runs along the back. On the head there are two antennae, two large appendages or palps, and four pairs of tentacles. The most characteristic features are the two appendages or palps, on on each side of the head. These are very large and longer than the antennae. The color is usually golden or bronze, sometimes with a green tint.

Ragworms are predator worms with strong jaws; a large ragworm can produce quite a bite! They have lots of small legs, which explains why they are also called marine centipedes. They emerge out of the sea bottom to mate in the spring. Deep-sea fishermen like to use ragworms for bait because fish like to bite into them. However, these worms are more difficult to dig up out of the mudflats, making them more expensive than lugworms. That is why ragworms are cultivated. There are various kinds of ragworms. The king rag can grow as long as 40 centimeters. The estuary ragworm grows to 20 centimeters.

Habitat:

It lives in the tidal zone, or just below, under rocks or buried in sand or muddy substrate.

Distribution:

It is found in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, on both hemispheres. It is also registered in the Mediterranean.

Oriental Fire Belly Newt - Cynops orientalis

Class: Amphibia  Order: Caudata  Family: Salamandridae  Genus: Cynops

Species: C. orientalis

Description

The Chinese Fire-bellied Newt is the smallest species of the East Asian salamandrid genus Cynops. In its morphological features this species is distinctly different from other taxa in this genus. Head relatively large, a little longer than broad; snout rounded. Palatine teeth in two longitudinal series, commencing from front of choanae meeting anteriorly, gradually diverging posteriorly. Tongue small, practically free at the sides. Paratoids moderately developed, their posterior borders demarcating head from neck. Faint vertebral ridge. Tail rather short, approximately the length of the body. Margins of dorsal and ventral tail fins nearly parallel in breeding male, ending rather abruptly in a rounded, blunt tip. Skin rather smooth, especially in aquatic individuals. Lateral line organs clearly discernible in water.

Male smaller than female, especially the tail is shorter in the male than in the female. In the reproductive season, males have well developed dorsal and ventral tail fins, and a swollen cloaca.

Colour is dark-brown to black above, occasionally greyish. Colour of belly and throat lively red or orange with many rounded black spots. The base of each limb, anterior part of the cloaca and ventral tail fin are orange, posterior part of cloaca is black.

Total maximum length 7 to 9 cm.

Eggs and larvae
Eggs are laid individually, under and between leaves, folded in a leaf, in floating roots and grasses. Size of oval-shaped jelly mass 4 to 2.5 mm, egg rounded, 2 mm in diameter. A female can lay a little over 100 eggs per season on average, from March to mid-June. Optimal water temperature for egg deposition is 15 to 23° C. Eggs laid in water of 18-25° hatch in 11 to 17 days, at lower temperatures hatching takes considerably longer.

One insemination is sufficient for a female to lay fertilized eggs during two months; in this and other features of oviposition and early development there are differences between C. orientalis and C. cyanurus.

Hatching larvae are 10-12 mm. Larvae are uniformly dark-brown to black, a little lighter on the ventral side, and take approximately 50 to 80 days to metamorphose. After metamorphosis at a length of 30-35 mm, juveniles live on land.

Distribution

C. orientalis is widely distributed at the lower reach of the Yangtze River and adjacent areas, in the hilly plains of central and southeastern China at 30 to 1,500 m altitude (the provinces of Henan, southern Hubei, southern Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Fujian, and Hunan).

Habitat

The habitat is described as consisting of all suitable water bodies at various altitudes, mountain ponds, seepages and paddy fields in hilly areas, small brooks, flooded fields in mountain valleys, in forests and degraded areas. Locally it may be very abundant. “Always the water is cold and quiet, in the shade of grass, with a mud bottom free from stones”. For egg deposition C. orientalis often chooses lentic water bodies such as ponds, wells and farmland ditches.

Behaviour

There are no studies in western languages on natural history and ecology of this species. Although the newts are often aquatic, they also live on land outside the breeding season. In Zhejiang where winters are mild, C. orientalis does not hibernate and can be found all year round. According to observations by Yang & Shen in Hunan (1993), males enter the breeding pond first in January and February, resulting in an initial sex-ratio eschewed towards males. Fei et al. (2006) refer to a peak in the breeding season from late April to mid May. Males and females leave the breeding water from July to September.

Reproduction and courtship behaviour is similar to that of other Cynops species, but shows temporal differences. The male identifies a female by sniffing her body. He positions himself in front of her, and rapidly vibrates the distal part of his tail, fanning towards her snout. If the female is responsive, she stays still or moves towards the male. The male then turns round, creeping ahead of the female. He deposits a spermatophore on the substrate and the female picks it up with her cloaca. The male’s tail-fanning courtship display and creep movements ahead of the female are of relatively short duration and one spermatophore is deposited a few seconds after the male starts to creep ahead of the female. The female looses interest in the male soon after the first spermatophore deposition. The male may bite and hold on to the female for a short while afterwards.

Threats and conservation

Given the local abundance of this species and its large distribution, the Chinese Fire-bellied Newt is not immediately endangered. Habitat destruction and degradation are major threats to this species, as well as the use of herbicides and insecticides on rice terraces. The animals are sold by the thousands in pet-markets in China and Europe.

Observations in captivity

This species has been successfully kept and bred in captivity. It can be kept aquatic all year round. Most observations on its behaviour were made in aquariums. It prefers dense vegetation and still water and takes all sorts of living and dead food items. In captivity juveniles can be persuaded to live in water, where they grow faster than on land.

Red Headed Centipede - Scolopendra subspinipes

Order: Scolopendromorpha   Family: Scolopendridae   Genus: Scolopendra

Scolopendra subspinipes is a species of centipede. The native range is uncertain. The certain natural range is Meganesia and Indomalaya. The species is also found on virtually all land areas around and within the Indian Ocean, all of Tropical and Subtropical Asia (including Russia), South and Central America, and the Caribbean. However, how much of this range is natural and how much due to human introduction is unclear.With such a wide geographic range, the species is known by a great many common names including Chinese Red Head, Giant Centipede, Jungle Centipede, Orange Legged Centipede, Red Headed Centipede and Vietnamese Centipede.

It is among the largest centipedes with a maximum length of 20 cm. They are active and aggressive, preying on almost everything that they can overwhelm.

It has colour variations. Its body is usually red or reddish brown with yellow or yellow-orange legs. In common with other members of genus Scolopendra, it has 21 body segments with each segment having one pair of legs attached. A pair of modified legs known as forcipules can be found on its head, which is covered by a flat shield and bears a pair of antennae. The forcipules are the major tools used by the centipede to kill its prey or for defense, as they have sharp claws that connect to venom glands. Centipedes breathe through the openings located along sides of their bodies. These openings are either round-shaped or S-shaped. They have simple eyes with poor vision, so they rely much on touch and their chemoreceptors.

This is an aggressive and nervous arthropod which is ready to strike if interfered with and is sensitive to vibrations nearby. It preys primarily on insects or other predatory arthropods (like spiders), however, if it is large enough to overpower small vertebrates like mice or small reptiles, it will readily attempt to consume them as well. It tends to try to eat almost every living animal it encounters that is not longer than itself. It attacks its prey with the last prehensorial legs, then curves its head quickly behind to implant its venomous jaws deeply and firmly into the prey. The prey is held by the centipede's other legs until it dies from the fast-acting venom. During a fight, the centipede will use its entire body coiling the prey or enemy with its legs firmly attaching to the body of the opponent. Then, it will quickly penetrate its forcipules into the victim for venom injection.

The male produces capsules containing mature sperm cells, spermatophores, which are deposited in a reservoir called the spermathecae of the female during mating. The female then fertilizes her immature eggs, oocytes, and deposits them in a dark, protected area. The female lays 50 to 80 eggs which she vigilantly protects until they hatch and the baby centipede molt once. If danger is detected she will wrap around her babies to keep them safe. The young centipedes molt once each year, and take three to four years to attain full adult size. Adults molt once every year. They may live for 10 years or more.

S. subspinipes is a popular pet among arthropod hobbyists. The centipede was a traditional food source for Aboriginal Australians.

Scarlet Skimmer - Crocothemis servilia

Order: ODONATA  Family: LIBELLULIDAE  Genus: Crocothemis

Crocothemis servilia is one of the most common and widespread odonate species in the world, occurring in artificial and highly disturbed habitats and under no threats at present.

Crocothemis servilia is an extremely widespread species, occurring throughout mainland tropical and subtropical Asia, Japan, the Ryukyu Archipelago, the greater and lesser Sunda isles, the Philippines and Sulawesi. In the west it extends into Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Turkey. It has been accidentally introduced into Florida in the USA.

The Scarlet Skimmer (Crocothemis servilia) is a species native to Asia which was introduced to southern Florida. It was first discovered in the U.S. near Miami, Florida, in 1975 and since has become common across most of the southern half of the Florida peninsula.

This species breeds in ponds, ditches, marshes and open swamps.

This species does not appear to be under any major threats across most of its range.

Male body is red color and female body is yellow in color.

In these Scorpions(order Scorpiones,family Buthidae),the sternum of the cephalothorax is roughly triangular. Some legs have spines on the tibiae. Young are born live and climb on to the mother's back. Nymphs may take several years to mature. In a wide variety of habitants,ranging from desert to moist forest,where they found in rock cracks and underneath stones,logs and bark. Most of the dangerous scorpions belong to this family. Their powerful venom paralyzes the muscles,including those of the respiratory system and the heart.

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