Uroctonus mordax Spermatophore

I brought the spermatophore in to work on Wednesday and got a few closeups under the microscope. Very interesting and bizarre.

The larger version of this picture is available here, and a few more shots can be found in this gallery.

I've also uploaded several videos from Tuesday night's attempts to my YouTube account, including one of male D's rejection.

Notes, Part II

Male B, female 3:
Male observed sexually stinging female. Following morning, no spermatophore found. Pair separated, will attempt again.

Male C, female 4:
Spermatophore found in morning. Pair separated.

Notes

So I don't forget what happened tonight.

Uroctonus mordax mating attempts:

Male B, female 3:
Male approached female under bark, male later upside down hanging from bark, pair later upside down, no promenade observed, male coaxed female onto bark. Upon examination for spermatophore, pair separated. Male later returned under bark, last seen as both under bark (male's rear protruding), cannot tell if pedipalps are grasped. Will leave overnight and examine for spermatophore in morning.

Male C, female 4:
Male initially very confused about where to grasp female; wrong pedipalp and leg, metasoma and leg, both pedipalps wrong while sitting astride female. Eventually gave female a brief sexual sting in the membrane behind the left chela. Unsuccessful sexual sting behind right chela followed by extended sting behind left chela (greater than ten minutes). After this observed extended promenade a deux -- sometimes grasping one pedipalp, sometimes both, a few instances of cheliceral kisses on the part of the male observed as well. Male walked both across provided bark and bare substrate. No spermatophore observed as of yet. Will leave overnight and examine for spermatophore in morning.

Male D, female 5:
Male did not notice female's burrow initially. When directly introduced, female came partway out. Apparent standoff ensued, with both specimens metasomas raised and periodically waving pedipalps (video forthcoming). Female briefly grasped male's pedipalps. Pair separated to prevent injury; male now believed to be large subadult as opposed to initial assumption of small adult.

Centruroides sculpturatus:
Several juveniles wandering off female. Majority swept from female's back prior to moving her to a separate container. Will hopefully separate all second instars tomorrow evening. Current brood size estimated at >20.

Centruroides at Second Instar

Right on schedule! A week after birth, the latest brood is molting to second instar. A better picture as first instars:


And a picture my fiancee took last night, the majority having molted:


(The scaled-down version doesn't do it justice, click here for the full version.) The one on the "shoulder" of the female's left pedipalp was trying to wriggle free of the last of its exuvium. I think the "humpbacked" one towards the upper-left of the pile is also in the process of molting.

I have another male hopefully arriving today, and a potential exchange lined up -- the new male for another gravid female.

Male Emperor Matures

Last night I scanned over a few tanks with my blacklight and discovered a disheveled pile of exoskeleton in my subadult emperor tank. I momentarily thought that one of my males had been cannibalized, but my fiancee thought it looked more like a molt (she was right).

I'd noticed a few weeks ago that one of them was getting incredibly fat and heading for a molt. It seems as though I was right! Unfortunately, he's too far back in the burrow to get a good look at, and the tankmates trampled the exuvium to the point that it's not worth displaying.

The female I recently acquired (see two posts down) seems to be doing better with her grain mites. Most wild-caught emperors seem to give birth in the spring, so if she hasn't had a brood by then, I'll try putting a male in with her. (Hopefully the other two will mature by then to improve the odds.)

Centruroides sculpturatus Brood

A couple of weeks ago, I traded one of my two male C. sculpturatus for a gravid female. Yesterday, that trade paid off.

New Emperor Arrives with Problems

There was a local show this weekend that a couple of invert-oriented friends were attending. When asked if I wanted anything, I requested a female Pandinus imperator if they could find one for less than $10. I have three subadult males (one of which is looking very close to molting) and wanted to try breeding this species. I'm probably the only person in this hobby who's first emperor DIDN'T arrive already gravid.

I think sending my friends good sexing photos paid off, because they brought me this huge $7 beauty.


She was moving around too much to get a good measurement, but I estimate her to be between five and six inches (chelicerae to telson). Watching her "glass-dance," I was able to tell that she's definitely a female.


Now, for those of you experienced in this hobby: do you notice anything unusual about the next photo?


Yep, she's got grain mites. This is actually the first time I've encountered them personally. The usual advice is to put the scorpion in a dry ICU tank (with a water dish, at least) to dehydrate and kill the mites. The other advice is to find predatory mites from other tanks to feed on the grain mites.

I'm sticking to the latter method, because the LAST thing I want is for a forest scorpion to give birth in a dry environment. Odds are in favor of this female being gravid. So, for the time being, I've added as many predatory mites as I could find in my other tanks and I'm keeping her quarantined. Hopefully it pays off.