Gravid Greenbottle???

[arachnopunks]

Some of you may remember we mated a pair of C. cyaneopubescens last October/November. The male was reluctant and never seemed to catch on to her drumming and following him around the enclosure. We ended up letting them cohabitate for a few weeks which ended with the male being canibalized. We figured the breeding was not a success and forgot about it.

Well, this week, some 7-8 months AFTER we "mated" them, the female has suddenly started to get really wide in the abdomen. She has not been eating more than usual but is really getting larger. This week, she has started to dig and web a hole on the other end of her enclosure, away from her burrow. She will just bury herself like an ostrich and sit there.

We have had this female since she was 1/2 inch, for about 3 years, and she has never exibited this behavior before. I have read stories of females producing eggsacks years after being around males. It is posible that she is gravid and just waited until now to get things going??

Here are a few pics of her and what she is doing

This one is of her entire enclosure overhead

 

[arachnopunks]

The next one is a close-up of the new hole she is digging:

 

[arachnopunks]

This last one is of the burrow she usually uses. As I type this, she is digging more agressively. She will put down a layer of web then move it around in the substrate with her legs.

 

[krystal]

heh, nice pictures! i've never seen anything like that before...very cool.