Part of the reason I've been updating so infrequently (aside from losing the household's good camera) was because the end of my senior year at OSU was rearing its ugly head -- but classes are over, and I graduate a week from today, so I hope to update more frequently. I also plan on getting the camera fixed (or buying a new one) once I put my degree to use for employment . . . though that may be a while.
Mordax Hunt
The second annual BugZoo camping trip was last weekend. Last year I found the scorpions featured in this post, and as we booked the same campground, I hoped to catch a few more this year. I had also been contacted by a researcher in the Midwest interested in doing a developmental study on this species who had requested that I collect a few gravid females for him.
The first night of blacklighting was at the same spot we found the specimens last year, and like last year, we didn't find much. Just five small juveniles. Coming back a second night, we looked a little farther along the road, where it was more of a cliff face than a talus slope, and we hit the jackpot! Fourteen specimens, including the four females I needed. The majority were hiding in cracks and crevices along the cliff face -- a few got away because they disappeared into cracks between huge pieces of rock that we couldn't possibly move. We probably saw at least twenty that night.
The count for the whole trip: five adult females (four gravid), five adult males, five immature females, five immature males. Another BugZoo member who provided the blacklight kept the non-gravid adult female (who stung him when he collected her, so we figured they were meant to be), two of the adult males, and three of the immatures. I sent the four gravid females to the researcher and gave the BugZoo a male and female subadult pair. I kept the remainder for my personal collection. It's nice to have a few more males, as I only had one prior to this.
(On a side-note, if anyone reading this is concerned about over-collecting: as I mentioned, there were a number that got away before we had a chance to collect them, and there were likely many more hiding beneath rocks that we never even saw -- our collecting was only by sweeping the blacklight around the area and overturning only a handful of the hundreds of rocks beside the road.)
Miscellaneous Updates
A friend of my fiancee's who lives near Phoenix routinely finds Arizona bark scorpions (Centruroides sculpturatus) in and around her home. She was gracious enough to agree to ship them to me after I sent her a box full of vials and some shipping funds. To date, she has sent me two males of the aforementioned species, one Vaejovis spinigerus, and one Hadrurus arizonensis (missing the movable finger of one chela, which makes for interesting feeding observations). I'm hoping she finds a female bark scorpion; I'd love to have a little community of these guys.
On the bark scorpion note, the professor who accompanied me on a mordax hunt last month is going to be visiting Arizona later this month and has offered to collect some scorpions for me. He seems genuinely excited about the prospect, especially after seeing the H. arizonensis I recieved.
My Centruroides vittatus seems to have reabsorbed the embryos again. I think I should just keep my eyes peeled for a cheap male.
I fed the majority of my scorpions last night. My Tityus stigmurus readily accepted prey, which was somewhat of a relief, because none have molted in several months and didn't seem to be growing much. They often panic when offered prey. My cave spider (Damon sp.) also ate a large cockroach -- she always worries me because she waits until I'm not looking before eating, so I never know if she eats. It doesn't help that she's such a skinny species.
The Antrodiaetus pacificus I found in April has excavated a sizeable burrow in her container -- it runs along the bottom so I can see her hiding out quite well. No eggsac as of yet.
Showing posts with label updates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label updates. Show all posts
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
More babies on the way?
So I know I haven't updated in a long time -- mainly 'cause our SLR died in December and I prefer to provide pictures when I update. I've had a few deaths, a few molts, etc. since the last update.
But I checked on the communal U. mordax tank today and thought I saw embryos through the tergites of one of my females while she was stinging her prey. Huzzah! The last brood I had was in July, so it will probably be a few months.
That reminds me -- I've been heating / humidifying / feeding my female C. vittatus. She's definitely reformed the embryos but refuses to pop.
But I checked on the communal U. mordax tank today and thought I saw embryos through the tergites of one of my females while she was stinging her prey. Huzzah! The last brood I had was in July, so it will probably be a few months.
That reminds me -- I've been heating / humidifying / feeding my female C. vittatus. She's definitely reformed the embryos but refuses to pop.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
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.
-- 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.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Miscellaneous Updates
I figure it's about time for a few random updates since I haven't posted in nearly a month, so here they are.
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I've been trying to downsize my collection a bit, mainly so I could focus on keeping communal species -- I'd rather have a large pile of deli cups if I know that the inhabitants can eventually be housed together. My current collection (scorpions only) has been reduced to:
0.1.0 Centruroides hentzi
0.0.1 Centruroides margaritatus
0.1.0 Centruroides vittatus
0.0.2 Hadogenes paucidens
0.1.0 Hadrurus arizonensis
0.1.8 Heterometrus longimanus
0.0.5 Hottentotta judaicus
0.0.4 Pandinus imperator
0.5.0 Tityus stigmurus
1.4.12 Uroctonus mordax
0.0.1 Vaejovis spinigerus
The only species on that list that aren't communal are the H. paucidens, V. spinigerus, and H. arizonensis. I plan on passing those onto other hobbyists soon. The C. hentzi is an adult female that I've had for over a year so I'm not thinking of breeding her again -- I may just keep her til she expires rather than giving her to someone without knowing her age. The C. margaritatus I've decided to keep until adulthood in the hopes of finding a mate (this is the bicolor morph which is very pretty, and I would love to have a community of them).
------
Last week I was stopping by the lab I used to work in, and as luck would have it, the woman who spotted the U. mordax that birthed this summer found another one! On the floor of a classroom she was in, no less.
I have no idea how, but a third-instar U. mordax somehow made its way into one of the buildings at OSU. The habitat for this species has to be at least ten miles away. I asked an entomologist in the building if he knew anything about it, and the closest answer he could think of was an escapee from a soil litter sample somewhere in the building.
It sure worked out well for me, though!
------
The same day as the arrival of the renegade U. mordax, I got a package from a friend of mine in Texas -- five third-instar Tityus stigmurus. This is a beautiful orange and black species native to Brazil that happens to be parthenogenic (for those of you who don't know, that means it's capable of reproducing asexually; a mature female will simply give birth to little clones of herself). Hopefully this will be the easiest community I've ever attempted.
------
Last night I was checking on my second instar U. mordax and noticed one in kind of a funny pose. My thought, since it wasn't moving but clearly wasn't in the "dead" pose, was that it was preparing to molt. Later that night a friend of mine to whom I gave one of the other 2I said hers was molting -- after double-checking on mine, I saw the same thing!
None of my other nine from this brood have molted yet, so hopefully they will soon. Some look like they're still to skinny (I hope they begin to feed more). Oh, and I found out another one of the five that I gave away died.
------
A couple weekends ago I was checking on my U. mordax community and lifted a rock where there had previously been one adult and one subadult female -- now, there was one adult female and half of one subadult female.
I took the larger female out in case she may have been gravid (gravid females are known to be less communal across a lot of species). It was dissapointing to see my collection shrink, but as the saying goes, "all scorpions are communal until they aren't."
I thought it may have been due to the size discrepancy, but within a few days my male and the other subadult female had occupied the same hide under the rock. Also, I saw one in the corner when I went to mist, and discovered it was sitting on top of a tankmate. Perhaps I just had a grouchy female.
------
The same female mentioned in the above minipost was taken on a community outreach and gave me my first sting experience with this species. I was a little disappointed at how weak it was -- it barely went beyond "dry sting" status, and that's only because I felt a little tingling after the fact.
If you're wondering, I was attempting to scootch the female off of my hand and onto a student's at the outreach, and she flicked her tail back at me. I felt her stinger connect (like brushing your finger against a pin) but felt no pain -- just a slight tingling a minute later. I figure it was somethign akin to a scorpion "warning shot." I used it as a chance to explain to the students how harmless this species was even if it does decide to sting.
------
And finally, a non-scorpion post.
A friend of mine from Georgia was able to pick up a few brown widows the last time she visited home and told me she had a male if I was interested. I initially had two males; one got eaten by a female and one was more or less a runt that just died.
I picked up a male and female from my friend (they were cohabiting, so I figured that was a good sign) on Thursday night last week (I write this on Tuesday morning). Friday night I introduced him to my only female. There was much web-dancing and moving about the tank, as well as some movement by the female, but I eventually grew bored and left them alone. I returned later and saw the male in position, and could clearly see the reproductive structure unwound from his pedipalp and in the female's ventral opening (forgive my lack of knowledge with spider anatomy).
Shortly after I arrived they separated and the male backed off from the female -- I assumed I disturbed them and he would now be eaten. However, when I checked back in 12 hours, they were mating again! As of last night they were still successfully cohabiting.
I figure I can leave the male in there, as he's been with all the females in my posession and has no further use for me. If he gets eaten, that's too bad; if he stays alive, that's an good example countering the "widow" status of his partner (though she did eat the first male I offered her).
------
Hopefully soon I'll be able to post pictures of the new T. stigmurus as well as the freshly-molted U. mordax.
------
I've been trying to downsize my collection a bit, mainly so I could focus on keeping communal species -- I'd rather have a large pile of deli cups if I know that the inhabitants can eventually be housed together. My current collection (scorpions only) has been reduced to:
0.1.0 Centruroides hentzi
0.0.1 Centruroides margaritatus
0.1.0 Centruroides vittatus
0.0.2 Hadogenes paucidens
0.1.0 Hadrurus arizonensis
0.1.8 Heterometrus longimanus
0.0.5 Hottentotta judaicus
0.0.4 Pandinus imperator
0.5.0 Tityus stigmurus
1.4.12 Uroctonus mordax
0.0.1 Vaejovis spinigerus
The only species on that list that aren't communal are the H. paucidens, V. spinigerus, and H. arizonensis. I plan on passing those onto other hobbyists soon. The C. hentzi is an adult female that I've had for over a year so I'm not thinking of breeding her again -- I may just keep her til she expires rather than giving her to someone without knowing her age. The C. margaritatus I've decided to keep until adulthood in the hopes of finding a mate (this is the bicolor morph which is very pretty, and I would love to have a community of them).
------
Last week I was stopping by the lab I used to work in, and as luck would have it, the woman who spotted the U. mordax that birthed this summer found another one! On the floor of a classroom she was in, no less.
I have no idea how, but a third-instar U. mordax somehow made its way into one of the buildings at OSU. The habitat for this species has to be at least ten miles away. I asked an entomologist in the building if he knew anything about it, and the closest answer he could think of was an escapee from a soil litter sample somewhere in the building.
It sure worked out well for me, though!
------
The same day as the arrival of the renegade U. mordax, I got a package from a friend of mine in Texas -- five third-instar Tityus stigmurus. This is a beautiful orange and black species native to Brazil that happens to be parthenogenic (for those of you who don't know, that means it's capable of reproducing asexually; a mature female will simply give birth to little clones of herself). Hopefully this will be the easiest community I've ever attempted.
------
Last night I was checking on my second instar U. mordax and noticed one in kind of a funny pose. My thought, since it wasn't moving but clearly wasn't in the "dead" pose, was that it was preparing to molt. Later that night a friend of mine to whom I gave one of the other 2I said hers was molting -- after double-checking on mine, I saw the same thing!
None of my other nine from this brood have molted yet, so hopefully they will soon. Some look like they're still to skinny (I hope they begin to feed more). Oh, and I found out another one of the five that I gave away died.
------
A couple weekends ago I was checking on my U. mordax community and lifted a rock where there had previously been one adult and one subadult female -- now, there was one adult female and half of one subadult female.
I took the larger female out in case she may have been gravid (gravid females are known to be less communal across a lot of species). It was dissapointing to see my collection shrink, but as the saying goes, "all scorpions are communal until they aren't."
I thought it may have been due to the size discrepancy, but within a few days my male and the other subadult female had occupied the same hide under the rock. Also, I saw one in the corner when I went to mist, and discovered it was sitting on top of a tankmate. Perhaps I just had a grouchy female.
------
The same female mentioned in the above minipost was taken on a community outreach and gave me my first sting experience with this species. I was a little disappointed at how weak it was -- it barely went beyond "dry sting" status, and that's only because I felt a little tingling after the fact.
If you're wondering, I was attempting to scootch the female off of my hand and onto a student's at the outreach, and she flicked her tail back at me. I felt her stinger connect (like brushing your finger against a pin) but felt no pain -- just a slight tingling a minute later. I figure it was somethign akin to a scorpion "warning shot." I used it as a chance to explain to the students how harmless this species was even if it does decide to sting.
------
And finally, a non-scorpion post.
A friend of mine from Georgia was able to pick up a few brown widows the last time she visited home and told me she had a male if I was interested. I initially had two males; one got eaten by a female and one was more or less a runt that just died.
I picked up a male and female from my friend (they were cohabiting, so I figured that was a good sign) on Thursday night last week (I write this on Tuesday morning). Friday night I introduced him to my only female. There was much web-dancing and moving about the tank, as well as some movement by the female, but I eventually grew bored and left them alone. I returned later and saw the male in position, and could clearly see the reproductive structure unwound from his pedipalp and in the female's ventral opening (forgive my lack of knowledge with spider anatomy).
Shortly after I arrived they separated and the male backed off from the female -- I assumed I disturbed them and he would now be eaten. However, when I checked back in 12 hours, they were mating again! As of last night they were still successfully cohabiting.
I figure I can leave the male in there, as he's been with all the females in my posession and has no further use for me. If he gets eaten, that's too bad; if he stays alive, that's an good example countering the "widow" status of his partner (though she did eat the first male I offered her).
------
Hopefully soon I'll be able to post pictures of the new T. stigmurus as well as the freshly-molted U. mordax.
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