P.murinus mating.
Male obtained on Thursday May 27th.
Female is over 5 inches in leg span. She is ROUGHLY 2 months post molt. Unsure if she is WC or CB. This her second time being bred. She gave me a good sac of 86 slings in August or September of 2009.
5-28-10: Male paired with female #1 on May 28th . Female fed 6 crickets the morning before the mating. They were paired in the evening at around 9pm. No special lighting. The room light was on the whole time. Male walked up to her slowly, smacking his front legs on the ground. Female was defensive at first, then realized he was trying to breed, and she started tapping back to him. He crawled up the side of the enclosure, their legs where barely touching. The female began tapping every 10 seconds or so. The male went in to try to insert a few times but couldn’t reach. He got at almost ground level and she let him go in for the insert. I saw at least one insert, and it lasted about a minute. After he was inserted for almost a minute, the female tried to attack him. I was luckily able to separate them with a thick piece of cardboard before she did any damage. The female ran quickly away, the male ran away at first, then tried to go back for more, I removed him to try to pair with my smaller female. I’m not sure whether or not I will pair him with this female the second time or not, I have someone else who wants him when I’m done, so I want to keep him safe. I may pair them again though. Im starting to think that the females size compared to the male’s is her reason for aggression, because my smaller female never attacks the male and they are almost the same size.
6-16-10 Starting to notice weight gain. Is that normal for them to start getting bigger in less than a
month?
7-7-10 Very noticeable weight gain. She has more than doubled her size since being mated.
7-14 -10 Female sealed her burrow and is doing some major redecorating. She clearing out all of her old web and laying down new web. She might be making her sac. Fingers crossed!!
7-21-10 Female hasn’t laid yet, but she has barricaded her self in her burrow with tons of dirt blocking the entrance to her burrow. She has been moving a little more dirt.
8-5-10 Female has started making her egg sac. I saw her constructing her bowl just minutes ago. Sac should be done by late tonight, or early tomorrow morning.
8-6-10 Egg sac completed. Female is hovering over it and protecting it.
8-26-10 Egg sac pulled. Still in the egg stage. The eggs look dented and some were moist to the touch. Pulled at day 21.
9-3-10 Eggs began to hatch into eggs with legs!!
9-25-10 Eggs with legs began to darken.
9-28-10 Began molting into 1st instars.
10-26-10 Began molting into 2nd instar.
11-1-10 Slings were separated. Most of the sac died before and shortly after reaching 2nd instar. I ended up with 27 slings total, not counting the handful that are in ICU. Not sure what went wrong. I will try a different incubation method next time.
Male obtained on Thursday May 27th.
Female is over 5 inches in leg span. She is ROUGHLY 2 months post molt. Unsure if she is WC or CB. This her second time being bred. She gave me a good sac of 86 slings in August or September of 2009.
5-28-10: Male paired with female #1 on May 28th . Female fed 6 crickets the morning before the mating. They were paired in the evening at around 9pm. No special lighting. The room light was on the whole time. Male walked up to her slowly, smacking his front legs on the ground. Female was defensive at first, then realized he was trying to breed, and she started tapping back to him. He crawled up the side of the enclosure, their legs where barely touching. The female began tapping every 10 seconds or so. The male went in to try to insert a few times but couldn’t reach. He got at almost ground level and she let him go in for the insert. I saw at least one insert, and it lasted about a minute. After he was inserted for almost a minute, the female tried to attack him. I was luckily able to separate them with a thick piece of cardboard before she did any damage. The female ran quickly away, the male ran away at first, then tried to go back for more, I removed him to try to pair with my smaller female. I’m not sure whether or not I will pair him with this female the second time or not, I have someone else who wants him when I’m done, so I want to keep him safe. I may pair them again though. Im starting to think that the females size compared to the male’s is her reason for aggression, because my smaller female never attacks the male and they are almost the same size.
6-16-10 Starting to notice weight gain. Is that normal for them to start getting bigger in less than a
month?
7-7-10 Very noticeable weight gain. She has more than doubled her size since being mated.
7-14 -10 Female sealed her burrow and is doing some major redecorating. She clearing out all of her old web and laying down new web. She might be making her sac. Fingers crossed!!
7-21-10 Female hasn’t laid yet, but she has barricaded her self in her burrow with tons of dirt blocking the entrance to her burrow. She has been moving a little more dirt.
8-5-10 Female has started making her egg sac. I saw her constructing her bowl just minutes ago. Sac should be done by late tonight, or early tomorrow morning.
8-6-10 Egg sac completed. Female is hovering over it and protecting it.
8-26-10 Egg sac pulled. Still in the egg stage. The eggs look dented and some were moist to the touch. Pulled at day 21.
9-3-10 Eggs began to hatch into eggs with legs!!
9-25-10 Eggs with legs began to darken.
9-28-10 Began molting into 1st instars.
10-26-10 Began molting into 2nd instar.
11-1-10 Slings were separated. Most of the sac died before and shortly after reaching 2nd instar. I ended up with 27 slings total, not counting the handful that are in ICU. Not sure what went wrong. I will try a different incubation method next time.
