- Joined
- Jul 19, 2002
- Messages
- 664
Below are events in the breeding of my G. aureostriata: (Kind of a long read, but pretty interesting)
I got a mature male G. aureostriata from Wade at the Richmond Insect Fair on Saturday 06/14.
I placed his container adjacent to my females tank and left him there over night. By morning, he was in the process of making a sperm web (That one scared the crap out of me as I looked in the male's container and he was in the sperm web upsidown, almost looked like he was going to molt.)
Sunday evening I introduced him to the female's enclosure. At first he crept very slowly toward the female and then starting drumming with his pedapalps on the ground about 3 inches away from her. He then started waving legs I and V.
Normally a gentle giant, she dropped her fangs straight down and I though it was all over for him.
Instead, he took the opportunity and went straight for her, lifting her up and breeding for several minutes. The breeding consisted of drumming on her underside with insertions.
After he was done, he backed of a coupld of inches and froze. She apparently was not done and started to pursue him with fangs reared.
At that point I put a wooden spoon in between them and the male took the opportunity to scale the glass and make his get away.
After that, she remained in attack position for almost 10 minutes and then started searching the tank for him. She even went to the screen top and was puching her fangs through the screen. (Pretty inpressive as they are a half inch in length)
He on the other hand relaxed in his enclosure and ate 2 crickets. (Probably went to sleep afterward).
I'll keep you posted as things progress....
I got a mature male G. aureostriata from Wade at the Richmond Insect Fair on Saturday 06/14.
I placed his container adjacent to my females tank and left him there over night. By morning, he was in the process of making a sperm web (That one scared the crap out of me as I looked in the male's container and he was in the sperm web upsidown, almost looked like he was going to molt.)
Sunday evening I introduced him to the female's enclosure. At first he crept very slowly toward the female and then starting drumming with his pedapalps on the ground about 3 inches away from her. He then started waving legs I and V.
Normally a gentle giant, she dropped her fangs straight down and I though it was all over for him.
Instead, he took the opportunity and went straight for her, lifting her up and breeding for several minutes. The breeding consisted of drumming on her underside with insertions.
After he was done, he backed of a coupld of inches and froze. She apparently was not done and started to pursue him with fangs reared.
At that point I put a wooden spoon in between them and the male took the opportunity to scale the glass and make his get away.
After that, she remained in attack position for almost 10 minutes and then started searching the tank for him. She even went to the screen top and was puching her fangs through the screen. (Pretty inpressive as they are a half inch in length)
He on the other hand relaxed in his enclosure and ate 2 crickets. (Probably went to sleep afterward).
I'll keep you posted as things progress....
