Autotomy photos / article...

[Cerbera]

Hey people...

For those of you that followed the vaguely harrowing time that was had by all (well, me and the spider anyway ) during my L. para's last moult (11th).

Here are the photos, and full report in case they are of help to anyone else who finds themselves in such a position...

1. 'Binky', self-righted after the disastrous moult, with his old exuvium still joined to him at the Right II trochanta joint.



2. Following my efforts to 'help' as detailed here the following photos clearly show the autotomized leg socket... (taken 3 days later after a full recovery appears to have been made)...

Interestingly, despite it now being over a week since the moult, and I have seen that his fangs have indeed hardened and gone black OK, he is not eating yet. I suspect he may be well fed enough to go straight for another pre-moult period ? Anyone know if he is likely to do this ?

 

[David_F]

Interestingly, despite it now being over a week since the moult, and I have seen that his fangs have indeed hardened and gone black OK, he is not eating yet. I suspect he may be well fed enough to go straight for another pre-moult period ? Anyone know if he is likely to do this ?

Did the spider lose the leg during the molt or at some point before this molt? If it was lost during the molt I doubt he'll "force" another molt any time soon. It will take a while for the new leg to start regrowing.

If the leg was lost some time before this molt it's possible that he could go back into premolt sooner than expected in order to regrow the leg. I don't know how likely it is though since another molt would seriously tax his energy reserves. It might be a waste to go through that much stress to regrow something as inconsequential as one leg.

The most likely explanation for him not eating yet is just that he's not hungry yet (or that the lining of his sucking stomach hasn't completely recovered from the molt or any other number of reasons). I've raised a hand-full of L. parahybana and I noticed that once they got to a pretty good size they took longer and longer to begin eating after a molt.

 

[SpiderZone2]

My L. parahybana as it had gotten bigger after molts would go like 2 to 3 weeks before eating anything. She is now a healthy 9 inches. She molted last Dec. and had not taken any prey for nearly a month. Although I offered it after a 2 week period. I just took them out as she had no intention of eating them. However she did drink alot more water than usual. But she has been eating every 2 weeks. If I try to feed her more often, she will not take it. I have however tried to breed her since and I had to leave the male in with her. I have no idea if she is gravid or not as when I got home she was already eating the male. The male was expendable anyways, so I was not so worried about the meal she just ate. She does have a large appitite now so I am hoping she will produce a egg sac. But I seriously doubt it. But for now time will tell.
My other female L. parahybana is around 6 plus inches and she only also eats every 2 weeks. She molted last month. I guess she also just does require the weekly feedings either. She will just kill crickets and not eat them.
So I guess from what I can see this is normal Just make sure the water dish is full because they seem to drink more water than any other species I have seen.
I hope all is well with yours and I believe it should be just fine. I don't think it would go into pre-molt even after the ordeal as it would take alot out of it and it might not make it. You just never know. I wish you well with yours and hope everything will turn out for the better.