Pseudoscorpion followup

A few interesting points I came across:

A) Reproduction is almost identical to Amblypygids

B) They mature at 4th instar

C) Mine is at least a year old (adult)

D) Mine isn't terribly old because it's still agile enough to climb smooth surfaces without a problem

E) I'll probably get a couple years out of this guy (longevity is 3-4 years after maturity)

Pseudoscorpion

Some days, I just love my job . . . 'cause look what one of my colleagues found trying to escape from a tub of hazelnut orchard debris:


For an idea of size, the deli cup he's in has a diameter of about an inch. I haven't officially measured him (her? how do you sex these things?) but he's probably around 5mm. Pretty good-sized, actually.

It would be kinda cool if it were a gravid female, but then I'd have to find something as small as mites to feed the young.

Based on a few pictures I turned up, I'm guessing it's Chelifer cancroides, but I have no means of confirming that.

Latrodectus geometricus producing an egg sac

The title says it all. I apologize for the video quality, but despite having an awesome DSLR for still photos, the only video device I have is my cellphone.



(In case the embed isn't working, you can find the video here on YouTube as well.)

Unfortunately, this isn't the specimen that I want to start producing sacs. This is the dark-morph I got from a friend in Georgia -- the same one whose hatched sac I posted photos of yesterday. Oh, and those slings plumped up considerably after they finished their cockroach.

Centruroides vittatus, widow spiders, centipedes, and a vertebrate

This is the female Centruroides vittatus that I mentioned may have absorbed her embryos. She's finishing off a cockroach in these pictures that she eagerly seized and immediately stung earlier today. She's fattened up considerably in the past couple days and I'm hoping the food and boosted warmth and humidity will help her kick-start some fresh embryos.


My two pairs of Latrodectus hesperus have been cohabiting for almost a week now and neither male has been eaten. Hopefully I'll get some sacs from these girls soon.

I tried getting a shot of the other pair but it didn't turn out -- same with my mated L. geometricus. She's gotten VERY fat and still hasn't produced any sacs yet. Luckily, my other female's sac hatched recently:

I haven't closely examined those two photos, but I estimated by looking at the slings themselves that there's around 80.

Now for a few critters I haven't posted about yet. Here are my two centipedes; the first is an immature Scolopendra subspinipes that I bought as a pling (pedeling) in October 2006. This is the only species of centipede that has a human death attributed to its venom.

This next one is an Ethmostigmus trigonopodus that I bought in May of 2007. I have no idea if it's full-grown (it's a good 2"-3").


And finally, a vertebrate. This is my fiancee's blue-tongued skink. He was hanging out near the side of his enclosure instead of freaking out and hiding, so I thought I'd take a couple pictures.

Good news, bad news

Bad news: the last of my Centruroides margaritatus died. It was almost ready to molt to 5th instar, I think. There goes that community idea. This leaves me with six communal species, assuming I can get my C. vittatus to re-produce that brood she was carrying. She eagerly fed today, so that's a good sign.

Good news: my second Latrodectus geometricus sac hatched the other day. I estimate at least 80 slings. I'll try to post pictures tonight or this weekend. (The first sac from this particular female was a dud.)

The female I mated still hasn't produced any sacs for me. My L. hesperus pairs are still cohabiting after nearly a week, though.

Minor updates

Yesterday I finally received a large quantity of plastic 40-dram vials that I'd been waiting on for quite some time. I took it as an opportunity to rehouse all my juvenile scorpions along with a few other critters. While doing so, I noticed:

-- Some of my T. stigmurus are getting pudgy, but none have molted yet
-- Eight of my remaining U. mordax from July's brood are now 3rd instar
-- One of my juvenile WC U. mordax is either 3I or 4I (it's bigger than my brood's 3Is but not by much)
-- My H. judaicus are all still 2I (I can't quite replicate Jordan's temperatures in my current setup) but have been putting on weight and may molt soon
-- My C. margaritatus is getting fatter (I believe it to currently be 4I)
-- My C. vittatus may have absorbed her embryos (I received a few tips on how to get her to regenerate them from a fellow hobbyist; if I don't have any luck he can find me another)
-- One of my S. grossa dropped a fifth eggsac:
--- sac #1's survivor is growing and doing well
--- sac #2 has one large survivor and one tiny survivor
--- sac #3 has a handful of survivors
--- sac #4 is mostly still there
--- I suspect that these don't cannibalize as much as true widows; there's lots of dead slings at the bottom that don't look like food boluses
-- My first L. geometricus eggsac was infertile, the second looks ready to explode with slings
-- The L. geometricus I mated still has not produced any sacs
-- Same for the L. hesperus I mated

I didn't really feel like dealing with my two male L. hesperus, so I put them in with my females -- the larger one with the female he mated with earlier, the smaller one with my virgin female.

Completely unrelated to bugs

My visitor map tells me I have a reader from just outside of Kladno (Libušín) in the Czech Republic. (I've also seen a reader or two in Prague.) My dad was born in Prague and grew up in Kladno.

Dobrý den!

By the way, if any of my readers feel like commenting on my posts . . . go for it! I'd like to hear others' thoughts on my collection and the hobby.

If anyone's a member of the forums I'm on, feel free to bring it up there as well.