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Xilaa's Insects
- Thread starter Rawbi
- Start date
It is true, though I've never seen it. (The mantises who had babies in my lab were gravid when I found them.) In fact, it may be beneficial to the male. It's been found that when his head is removed, a smaller secondary brain (or nerve cluster or something similar) in its abdomen/penis activates and makes him release more sperm for the female. In a way, it insures that her babies will all be his. The female also ends up with a nice meal to feed her eggs with too.
I think they've found that the head-munching behavior is more common in captive mantids, where the male can't escape.
I go back to school on Thursday. Expect more pictures when I return.
love the new scorpions. can't wait for more pictures
Hey folks. I've been back at school for two days now, and after a happy reunion with my buggy friends, I have two new pictures for you all.
First of all, the little Vietnamese sticks aren't so little any more.
Here's just one of the many we have. I'm guessing that she's younger than seven months old. I decided to take a picture of her with my hand for scale. She's about three inches long and has all her legs, which is a minority among the younger stick bugs.
And they're still breeding.
In other news...SURPRISE SEX CHANGE!
Well, it turns out that not all of our Australian walking sticks are female. One of them happens to be a boy. Little did I know that they don't grow wings until a certain molt, which this one did. Again apologizing for the horribad quality of my iPhone (I also took this picture through their glass display case), you can see his wings sticking out straight behind his abdomen. Provided the females he's in with aren't his mother or sisters, I hope he'll breed and there will be babies.
In still further news, the 1600 praying mantis babies still haven't hatched, and won't hatch until spring. I don't know if the jumping spider eggs have hatched, since my instructor took them home with her.
It's good to be back!
As always, taking questions and/or comments about the bugs.
First of all, the little Vietnamese sticks aren't so little any more.
Here's just one of the many we have. I'm guessing that she's younger than seven months old. I decided to take a picture of her with my hand for scale. She's about three inches long and has all her legs, which is a minority among the younger stick bugs.
And they're still breeding.
In other news...SURPRISE SEX CHANGE!
Well, it turns out that not all of our Australian walking sticks are female. One of them happens to be a boy. Little did I know that they don't grow wings until a certain molt, which this one did. Again apologizing for the horribad quality of my iPhone (I also took this picture through their glass display case), you can see his wings sticking out straight behind his abdomen. Provided the females he's in with aren't his mother or sisters, I hope he'll breed and there will be babies.
In still further news, the 1600 praying mantis babies still haven't hatched, and won't hatch until spring. I don't know if the jumping spider eggs have hatched, since my instructor took them home with her.
It's good to be back!
As always, taking questions and/or comments about the bugs.
More pictures!
Here's a better picture of the male Australian stick bug. He's far more stream-lined than the girls. His wings are folded up over his abdomen. Like the girls, he's got really bugged out eyes. ...pun unintended.
The thing underneath him isn't his reflection -- it's a Vietnamese stick bug, hanging upside down. I took this picture while the top of the Aussie cage was sitting on the Vietnamese cage.
Houdini the jumping spider had her babies! This is the case she made around her eggs. The eggs have hatched, but I haven't seen any of her babies yet. Either they're too small to see, they've all eaten each other, or mommy dearest has decided to have some snacks. We'll have to see what happens.
Shitty quality, but this is our Chilean rose hair tarantula. She's our biggest spider, and also the most bad-tempered. There's a piece of duct tape on top of her container that says "Cranky!!". It doesn't take much to get her to display her threat behavior. She lifts her upper legs up and shows off her fangs, ready to bite. Everyone still love her though, because she's so cool. :)
This is our Mexican blonde tarantula. I don't know very much about her yet, so I'll tell you a fun fact about spiders in general. The way to tell true spiders apart from mygalomorphs (the suborder of tarantulas) is to look at how they use their chelicerae (fangs). True spiders move their fangs sideways, tarantulas have to rear up and bring them down to bite.
This is our third big tarantula. To be honest, I'm not sure what this one is at all. For balance, I refer to this one as a male.
If you have suggestions of names for these tarantulas, post 'em here. I'm painfully unfunny, and I'm sure you guys can come up with something better than I can.
As always, taking any questions.
Here's a better picture of the male Australian stick bug. He's far more stream-lined than the girls. His wings are folded up over his abdomen. Like the girls, he's got really bugged out eyes. ...pun unintended.
The thing underneath him isn't his reflection -- it's a Vietnamese stick bug, hanging upside down. I took this picture while the top of the Aussie cage was sitting on the Vietnamese cage.
Houdini the jumping spider had her babies! This is the case she made around her eggs. The eggs have hatched, but I haven't seen any of her babies yet. Either they're too small to see, they've all eaten each other, or mommy dearest has decided to have some snacks. We'll have to see what happens.
Shitty quality, but this is our Chilean rose hair tarantula. She's our biggest spider, and also the most bad-tempered. There's a piece of duct tape on top of her container that says "Cranky!!". It doesn't take much to get her to display her threat behavior. She lifts her upper legs up and shows off her fangs, ready to bite. Everyone still love her though, because she's so cool. :)
This is our Mexican blonde tarantula. I don't know very much about her yet, so I'll tell you a fun fact about spiders in general. The way to tell true spiders apart from mygalomorphs (the suborder of tarantulas) is to look at how they use their chelicerae (fangs). True spiders move their fangs sideways, tarantulas have to rear up and bring them down to bite.
This is our third big tarantula. To be honest, I'm not sure what this one is at all. For balance, I refer to this one as a male.
If you have suggestions of names for these tarantulas, post 'em here. I'm painfully unfunny, and I'm sure you guys can come up with something better than I can.
As always, taking any questions.
