A face only a mother could love!

Until yesterday we only had one animal companion to look after, our one year old dog Micky. Now we have a new family member: the much feared Tongan "Molokau". It is a brownish-black centipede, about 15 cm long, with nasty looking pincers and lots of fast little legs.
Last year I got bitten by one while sleeping - it had crawled inside our moskito net and I woke up to a stinging pain in my knee and the Molokau lurking above me on the inside of the net ceiling -, so you can imagine my excitement when a few months ago Brian started to build a tank, announcing that he wanted to catch one of these beasts and keep it in the office! I had hoped this day would never come and was never sad to find a dead juvenile in our garden. But yesterday he finally found one and boy is it big!!! Now it is staring at me from the inside of its little tank that Brian has agreed to keep outside. At least until we´re sure there are no hidden cracks that it could escape out of. I am pretty sure it is already thinking of a way to break out and dig its pincers into me... Its name is Molly, by the way. Brian is convinced that it must be female, because it is so vicious...

He caught a few cockroaches to feed Molly and now we spend a lot of time sitting in front of the tank and watching the savage madness in there - Brian with boyish excitement and me shivering in disgust and feeling the urge to get my machete out. At least we´re not spending so much time watching movies any more and save some power. Gotta see it positive, right?!

Some scientific background from Dr.Brian:

The Molokau Scolopendra subspinipes is a species of centipede occasionally reaching 19 cm in length..It is found throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world, including Ha'apai, and is pretty nasty. It is dark in color and has 21 body segments and one pair of legs per segment.The female protects her eggs until they hatch. The centipedes molt once each year, and take three to four years to attain full adult size. They may live for 10 years or more.
Feeding and venom The Molokau is a predator. It feeds on insects (we feed her cockroaches) and other smaller invertebrates. It generally feeds by grasping its prey with a pair of legs and injecting a venom with its front legs, which are modified for this purpose. It can then feed off the immobilized or dead prey. The venom of the Molokau can cause pain and serious swelling in humans. It may also cause death in young children. I still do not understand why Sabine will not let me put the dodgey terranium I built for Molly inside.