Phrynus whitei sexing and breeding

[coloradanum]

Would anyone be able to point me toward some solid guides or advice on sexing and breeding P. whitei? I have one subadult who I’d like to breed in the future, but I’m seeing a ton of conflicting advice on sexing and breeding. Thanks in advance!

 

[Ratmosphere]

Phrynus whitei breeding questions

I’ve been keeping Phrynidae spp. for several years now, but this is my first time diving into breeding. I have a pretty big group of P. whitei (housed separately) and I’m hoping to find some pairs in the bunch. A few questions first: 1: I’m confident in how to sex them, but is there a way to...

arachnoboards.com

Hopefully @wizentrop can help further.

 

[that1ocelot]

Sexing ambly is generally not so difficult.

The most foolproof way is to check under the operculum using a molt, like the picture I've attached here. The structure indicates that this P. Barbadensis is a male.

Females have dark hooks, there is some pictures floating around arachnoboards.
As full grown adults, most phrynus have somewhat distinct operculum shapes, and can be distinguished visually to a well trained eye. Some are dimorphic as adults, but that can be difficult as well for new folks.

Breeding is not difficult but takes some time and a good understanding of Ambly behavior if you wish to do it right.

Find a male and female that are mature & recently molted. Feed them up.

Introduce male to the females enclosure. In a perfect world the enclosure is bigger than normal with many hiding spots.

Monitor their behavior - sometimes aggression & courtship is difficult to distinguish.

If they seem to get along, leave them for a bit. Continue monitoring their behavior off and on, if you're satisfied with their level of aggression towards one another you can leave them for a few days/weeks until you start seeing spermataphores (pictured below)

Oftentimes the leftover spermataphore will be eaten, even if the "load" is taken. If you have a confirmed male and female and don't see spermataphores after a couple weeks, I would still wager insemination occurred. I see a ton of sperms with my P. Barbadensis, but I only ever saw one with my P. Goesii, for example. I think I left the Goesii together for like two months.

 

[that1ocelot]

Would anyone be able to point me toward some solid guides or advice on sexing and breeding P. whitei? I have one subadult who I’d like to breed in the future, but I’m seeing a ton of conflicting advice on sexing and breeding. Thanks in advance!

How convenient that I got home from work and my subadult P. Whitei Nicaragua molted!

You can see here, she is female, the dark hooks are an indicator. Unfortunately my phone wouldn't focus properly but hopefully between the pictures I've provided you can get a good idea.

Bonus way of sexing that I did before even checking this molt - if you catch your animal at the right time after molting, you can carefully pick them up and look at the underside of their abdomen. If they are a couple hours after molting, still in the blue/light blue stage, any oocytes that might be developing will contrast heavily with the blue. It's a very, very easy way to confirm female if the stars align.

 

[wizentrop]

Hopefully @wizentrop can help further.

No need for me here, @that1ocelot covered everything nicely!