C.vittatus question

[Ythier]

Hi,
Does anyone know if the male C.vittatus have the elongated metasoma at subadult, or sub-subadult instar ?
Thanks,
Eric

 

[Ythier]

Nobody knows ?
American friends ?
Thanks,
Eric

 

[Gsc]

Honetsly I have never really looked... I catch C. vittatus all the time... I've only noticed a sexual difference in adults... Al the babies and subs have looked the same to me.... I'll be heading out for a week in the field collecting 8 weeks from now.... I should come across a large # of C. vittatus... I WILL LOOK for sexual differences in juvi/sub adults.... Sorry I could be a bigger help. I have a few females at home about to pop with babies...if they do, I'll be able to answer your question...

 

[Ythier]

Thanks a lot for your answer

 

[G. Carnell]

salut eric
mes T.paraensis bebes one les pinces TRES longues chez les males du 3eme stade, comparais au femelles, alors si ils sont si proche en termes de famille.. peut-etre que la reponse serait oui?

 

[Ythier]

Thanks George
Why not... some sub-subadult males P.transvaalicus have also more bulbous chela...

 

[Raan_Jodus]

Between my Vittatus, I dont think I was able to tell male from female through their metasoma size until they were 6th instar. Its possible at 5th instar, I really cant remember, I'll go look through my molts and see if I can pick out the female at any point. I dont have them all, but I saved most of them.

*edit: after looking as closely as I could by eye, I dont really think I can notice any difference between the 4 molts I have that I think are from 5th instar. Theres one that makes me think its the female, but its really close. I will post pictures later if I can find batteries for my camera. But I cant really tell a difference at that stage.

 

[Ythier]

ok, thanks a lot

 

[Raan_Jodus]

ok, here they are, sorry about the crappy pics, I'm not that great at using the macro focus, and my camera is eating through my batteries like a Haddy in a cricket bin.

1st pic is what I think might be the female. Its a tad larger than the rest I think.
4th one, of the 3 is a lil smaller than the rest, but I think its still 5th instar, cause i do have a runt so to speak. Otherwise they are all the same size roughly. Hope it helps some. But overall I was not able to differentiate gender until they were 6th instar, thats when it was readily apparent even to me

 

[Ythier]

Thanks you very much Raan_Jodus !
It seems that there are not a lot of difference between your molts.

I asked this question because I have 4 little vittatus which show a significant difference in the metasoma. I can see 3 females and 1 male.
Unfortunately I do not know the instar, but they are quite small (3-4cm / 1,2-1,6in), and I was wondering if, at least the male, was adult.

I had in the past some vittatus twice bigger than these ones. I know that this species is quite polymorphic in color, but is it also polymorphic in size ?

Thanks again,
Eric

Female

Male

 

[King_Baboon_Guy]

The male's tail does seem longer, but is it just an optical illusion because of the male being thinner and less bulky than the female?

 

[Raan_Jodus]

I was wondering that as well... but regardless, you have some beautiful colour on them. I really hope they dont fade out as mine did. At that size, I'm only guessing here, they might be 4th instar. I recall mine pretty much almost doubling in size each molt (give or take) and they are a little under 3" or 7 1/2cm roughly.

as i said tho, very nice colours.

 

[Ythier]

The male's tail does seem longer, but is it just an optical illusion because of the male being thinner and less bulky than the female?

Yes the male's metasoma is thinner, but also a bit more longer

 

[Gsc]

The males tail is noticeably longer...at first you think you have caught two different centroides sp. of scorps. while field collecting... Really neat!

 

[Nazgul]

Hi,

Eric, as I told you my (sub?)adult male specimen showing the dimorphism is 5th instar now. As our vittatus are of the same litter I think yours should be 5. instar too.

Does anyone know the number of molts to maturity in C. vittatus? I wasn´t able to find a citation for this info. Is it mostly 5 for males and 6 for females as in a lot of other Centruroides spp?

Regards
Alex

 

[Raan_Jodus]

its 6 for males and females.

 

[Nazgul]

Hi,

ah, that´s interesting. That would mean males are showing a sexual dimorphism before adulthood. do you have a citation for that or is it your own experience?

Regards
Alex

 

[Raan_Jodus]

its my own experience. All 4 of mine molted to 6th instar, lets see. I got them near the start of October, maybe the 10th or something like that, I dont really remember.

1- Molted to 4th Oct 20th, 5th Nov. 8th and 6th Nov 26th
2- 4th Oct 21st, 5th Nov 8th and 6th Nov 30th.
3- 4th Oct 18th, 5th Nov 10th and 6th Nov 30th.
4- 4th Oct 21, 5th Nov 8th, and 6th Nov 25th.

Thats the schedual they molted at. They were all kept in large deli cups under a 50W heat lamp with a piece ofwet kleenex on one side. As I understand those conditions increased growth times, which I somewhat regret. Regardless, I got them all at 3rd instar, and they all molted to 6th. After which I put them together in a 5 gal hex, shortly after which the female i had was observed mating. So in maybe another few months I'll have some babies, but mom is a pain in the ass to get out of her bark hide. I'd pretty much hate to have the babies born in there.

 

[Ythier]

Thank you very much Raan_Jodus.
Ok so our males and females are both subadult, thanks.

 

[Nazgul]

Yes, thanks. That helps a lot.

Regards
Alex