Orphnaecus sp. ‘Blue’ Panay sling behavior notes

[Kibosh]

As a less than commonly kept species I though I would post some notes about their development and behavior.

I am currently raising 5 fossorial slings for comparison:

I. Mira
2x O. Aureotibialis
2x O. Sp. Panay Blue
And have raised a Panay Blue to maturity in the past.

These T's are a little strange in their enclosure setups. They are not truly fossorials nor are they arboreal.

I know there are other species like this which leads me to think we should come up with a term for these T's that like a bit of digging AND climbing room, but are neither truly fossorial or arboreals.

They enjoy some light digging, but also build a web "nest" against structures that go above the ground in one large chamber they make for themselves. They often like to rest at the entrance of the terrestrial portion of this "nest" waiting for prey. I can only compare their digging to what people see with gopher tunnels for individuals who live in areas with gophers. It is a very shallow serpentine tunnel just below the dirt that you can see bulging above the surface. I have rarely seen them dig more than this except in their main chamber and even then it is shallow. Both my slings have already done this and are displaying the exact same behavior as their predecessor.

They are shy, bolty, not aggressive at all, love lots of cover and moisture, great eaters, and mine have been ideal old world starters.

I guess they could be considered a "pet hole", but they do hang out of the entrance of their hide at night so bring a flashlight. The "nests" they make really are fascinating too if you get them to build it against their enclosure.

Lastly the females have amazingly subtle colors as adults. Bicolored dark blue almost black front legs and the rest a chocolate brown. Have not raised a male so not sure if they are sexually dimorphic in color.

I'll keep this post updated as they mature and post any other unique findings.

Feel free to ask questions.

 

[RoachCoach]

It seems like fossorial and semi fossorial vary a bit in their comfort zone of a hide depending on food availability. If food is always available they will act normal. If it is limited they won't dig much. This is just anecdotal from what I've seen. It does seem pretty pragmatic all said and done. My Darling-E, digs deep no matter what. But she stays near the top regardless of tunnel moisture or food availability. Once we map the human brain, we will know what's going on inside that head of theirs too.

 

[Scp682]

We need a term for a combination of semi arboreal and semi fossorial.. semi fossboreal??

There's so many ts/spiders/inverts with so many habits and although they can be generalized fairly easily into set categories there's still so much to be determined and discovered. What about spiders that live in dead partially decayed trees ("snags")? How do we classify how to house them?

 

[HeartBum]

Tom Moran did a video on this species, and in it he notes that neither he nor pretty much anyone else with them have noted any sort of arboreal behaviour. As slings, they build the classic "volcano" tunnels. Once they grow a bit, which personally I've found to be incredibly fast, faster than all my others in fact, they construct themselves a burrow if provided with a hide, or will continue their tunnel systems.

It's strange that they're reported as semi-arboreal, when I haven't seen any personal accounts of anyone who has witnessed this behaviour. The most mine has done is over the past couple of days, webbed the back of its cork bark as it's swapped the entrances from front to back, sealing off the front.

 

[Kibosh]

Tom Moran did a video on this species, and in it he notes that neither he nor pretty much anyone else with them have noted any sort of arboreal behaviour. As slings, they build the classic "volcano" tunnels. Once they grow a bit, which personally I've found to be incredibly fast, faster than all my others in fact, they construct themselves a burrow if provided with a hide, or will continue their tunnel systems.

It's strange that they're reported as semi-arboreal, when I haven't seen any personal accounts of anyone who has witnessed this behaviour. The most mine has done is over the past couple of days, webbed the back of its cork bark as it's swapped the entrances from front to back, sealing off the front.

This is exactly what I have found as well.