I've found my whip spider dead in pieces in her terrarium, what could happen?

MikeyD

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 3, 2017
Messages
136
They could have been springtails that you were seeing and not ants or mites. Also what kind of isopods, the dwarf types or one of the larger species? Many of the larger ones will go after living prey if they are hungry enough. If your whip spider died during a molt it could have easily been consumed by isopods.
In your area of Mexico you have smaller species from the genus Paraphrynus and Phrynus so you could have had an adult or close to it at the size you described.

http://sea-entomologia.org/PDF/BSEA39ARACNO/B39345.pdf
 

Polenth

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 29, 2018
Messages
459
Again, she was closed and alone with this woodlices and bunch of little white micro bugs. What do you thing could happen??? Any suggestions, any theories?
I'm not really buying that mites killed the whip spider and spread the bits around. Parasitic mites will latch on to the animal and sit there. Predatory mites only go after other tiny prey (such as other mites and springtails). Scavenging mites will eat the dead body (and it's common to see a population explosion of these after a death). But the mites don't chase down large prey and their scavenging wouldn't move big bits around.

Now, woodlice are another issue. Though they're usually detritivores, they're also opportunists. Soft moulting invertebrates can and will be eaten. They'll also pick up bits of food and move them around.
 
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