Strange Cricket Behavior

blooms

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Messages
222
I put a cricket in my enclosure to feed my Haplopelma Schmidti tarantula. In morning the cricket hadn't been eaten, but that's when the strange behavior started. The cricket stood at the entrance of the tarantula's burrow, rocking back and forth. Then it turned around in the entrance, and faced outward. Then it kicked its legs a few times and just stood motionless facing away from the tarantula, but standing in the entrance for quite a while. Any idea what this means?

Thanks
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 4, 2005
Messages
8,982
Yeah I've watched some crickets display some behavior like that. It seems to me to be defensive behavior or threatening dominance behavior. Sounds like that cricket "thinks" he won something haha, but the Ts just not hungry. I've seen them do that around other crickets and I've seen them turn around to use their back legs to kick at each other, esp. if one is trying to keep others away from food that one is eating. They do it real fast so it's hard to see. They try to kick with their legs and try to land a shot with the spikes on their legs. That's how it looks to me anyway, I haven't read that anywhere.
 
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