- Joined
- Aug 29, 2002
- Messages
- 297
We are often asked how to get at the cocoons of female tarantulas, which sit in it's tube in a haplotank. The cocoons are usually guarded by the females deep at the end of the tube, as we were able to show in the posingt "Some nice shots of our Ornithoctoninae females with their cocoons in their so-called Haplotanks"
However, there is a trick to get at the cocoons without destroying the burrows of the females or having to dig up the cocoons.
In nature, many tarantulas like to keep their cocoons out of the tube in the morning hours. Especially if there are already prelarvae in it. We were told by friends that they discovered a lot of white "table tennis balls" in the middle of the grass of the road embankment in the Peruvian Andes while walking down a road embankment in the morning. On closer inspection, these "ping-pong balls" were actually tarantula cocoons, apparently placed at the burrow entrance by the mothers to absorb heat, likely aiding brood development. This interesting behavior can also be observed in the terrarium. The pictures show a female Ornithoctonus aureotibialis, which was placed on the sunlit window sill with her haplotank and her cocoon, which is now 5 weeks old. It wasn't long before the mother came out of the depths of her tube with her cocoon to the entrance and held it up to the sun's rays. As the keeper, you can take advantage of this moment and steal the cocoon from the mother with a targeted grip with tweezers to check it and, if necessary, continue incubating. What is interesting in this case is how the mother holds the cocoon. She holds the cocoon with her hind legs a little under her abdomen. It may do this in order to quickly push the cocoon under the body and fall back into the tube with it if it is disturbed, for example by a predator. If, on the other hand, the cocoon were held out of the tube with its front legs, it would lie in front of the mother and thus at the mercy of the enemy in the event of a disturbance, even if the mother withdrew very quickly into the tube with it.
However, there is a trick to get at the cocoons without destroying the burrows of the females or having to dig up the cocoons.
In nature, many tarantulas like to keep their cocoons out of the tube in the morning hours. Especially if there are already prelarvae in it. We were told by friends that they discovered a lot of white "table tennis balls" in the middle of the grass of the road embankment in the Peruvian Andes while walking down a road embankment in the morning. On closer inspection, these "ping-pong balls" were actually tarantula cocoons, apparently placed at the burrow entrance by the mothers to absorb heat, likely aiding brood development. This interesting behavior can also be observed in the terrarium. The pictures show a female Ornithoctonus aureotibialis, which was placed on the sunlit window sill with her haplotank and her cocoon, which is now 5 weeks old. It wasn't long before the mother came out of the depths of her tube with her cocoon to the entrance and held it up to the sun's rays. As the keeper, you can take advantage of this moment and steal the cocoon from the mother with a targeted grip with tweezers to check it and, if necessary, continue incubating. What is interesting in this case is how the mother holds the cocoon. She holds the cocoon with her hind legs a little under her abdomen. It may do this in order to quickly push the cocoon under the body and fall back into the tube with it if it is disturbed, for example by a predator. If, on the other hand, the cocoon were held out of the tube with its front legs, it would lie in front of the mother and thus at the mercy of the enemy in the event of a disturbance, even if the mother withdrew very quickly into the tube with it.
