umm...severed leg still moving??

[mysticulator]

my mom accidentally clipped my little A velutina's leg off and.. it was still moving, why is this?

 

[Gigas]

Probably like when a lizard loses a tail, there is still enough electrical energy in the nerves to make the muscles twitch. Either that or the muscles are contracting due to all the hemolyph leaking out/drying out.

And welcome to the boards

 

[tyrel]

Cut the head off a chicken, It will keep running around.

The chicken... not the head... :}

 

[lucanidae]

This sounds strange. A tarantula's leg should not extend once cut from the body. The reason the death curl happens is because once hemolymph preassure is lost the muscles pull the legs in towards the body.

So once a leg is removed it can no longer extend, only contract, and only a little, not like a lizards tail.

 

[ErinKelley]

I was kinda wondering how it got clipped??

 

[Czalz]

I was kinda wondering how it got clipped??

Sounds like a quick shut of the lid event to me..............

 

[IguanaMama]

The good news is, since it is still small, it should regenerate in only one or two molts. I had a vagans that was about the same size as your velutina with seven legs. After the first molt, the leg was just slightly smaller than the others. After the second molt you couldn't tell the difference. All better within 3 months time. I don't know if it is the same with aboreals as with terestrials though. You might want to take notes and pictures, it could make a good science fair project.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Cut the head off a chicken, It will keep running around.

The chicken... not the head... :}

Hope you're not serious about that comparison

 

[mysticulator]

Probably like when a lizard loses a tail, there is still enough electrical energy in the nerves to make the muscles twitch. Either that or the muscles are contracting due to all the hemolyph leaking out/drying out.

And welcome to the boards

that makes sence..it was still really freeky to watch though
and thank you lol

 

[demicheru]

appendages moving after um, separation?

i had an alipes (featherleg centipede) tail flip around for a good while...at least ten minutes though with definite attenuation of the movement over time...i've got about a two second clip of it somewhere...couldn't find the stupid camera in time...

anyway, yeah i wouldn't worry about it though now i'm going to have to think about why/how the leg would keep moving. is it contracting and expanding or more just flopping there?

welcome to the boards!

 

[mysticulator]

i had an alipes (featherleg centipede) tail flip around for a good while...at least ten minutes though with definite attenuation of the movement over time...i've got about a two second clip of it somewhere...couldn't find the stupid camera in time...

anyway, yeah i wouldn't worry about it though now i'm going to have to think about why/how the leg would keep moving. is it contracting and expanding or more just flopping there?

welcome to the boards!

it was contracting and expanding.. whenever my mom and i poked at it, it would expand.. very weird

 

[kitty_b]

my b. smithi lost a leg in a vial-closing accident when it was a tiny sling (never even saw him near the top!). i didn't know he'd lost the leg until i saw it slightly moving on the desk.

i agree that it's very weird to see.

 

[Fenixflamz]

ckickets too

I found out when I was feeding my slings, that if you pull the body off a cricket (trying to remove back legs) the head will still run around with out the body for a few seconds. kinda creepy yet interesting.

 

[MrWhite]

My brother cut the head off a wasp once and the body continued to struggle, legs and wings moving, for over an hour. Very freaky.

 

[Gigas]

it was contracting and expanding... whenever my mom and i poked at it, it would expand... very weird

Because the legs have sensory hairs tucked in amongst the normall hairs the movement was probably because it's a knee jerk reaction to pull away from either the contact of your moms finger or whatever chemicals it detected on it.
many animals can continue having uncontroled reactions after they die, a well known one in America is the abilty for dead rattle snakes to bite and inject venom upto around 30 mins after their death if i remember correctly.

 

[David_F]

it was contracting and expanding.. whenever my mom and i poked at it, it would expand.. very weird

That makes more sense. Since, as lucanidae mentioned, the legs only have contractor muscles they rely on hemolymph pressure to extend. When the leg is severed there is no way for hemolymph to flood the leg to extend it so it shouldn't be extending on its own (read: it shouldn't act like a severed lizard tail even if there are still active nerves remaining). When you poked it you were applying pressure to what little hemolymph was left in the leg and causing the leg to extend (next time you feed your spiders tear the back leg off of a cricket and squeeze the femur to see what happens). Was the leg moving without you applying pressure to it?

 

[Gesticulator]

It was actually contracting and I assume "relaxing" rather than extending. At first it looked like it was sort of wriggling, but it was the "toe" curling in. Later, when I called my daughter down to see it, it stopped. I didn't want her to think I was seein things, so I touched it with the tweezer. It contracted again. The movements became slower and less intense. It lasted about five minutes. It really would have been strange to see if it had been an adult instead of a sling.

And yes, it was a "closed the lid and caught the leg" happening.

 

[Nerri1029]

This sounds strange. A tarantula's leg should not extend once cut from the body. The reason the death curl happens is because once hemolymph preassure is lost the muscles pull the legs in towards the body.

So once a leg is removed it can no longer extend, only contract, and only a little, not like a lizards tail.

I might be wrong but I remember reading that only two joints do not have opposing musculature.

and I have witnessed this myself as well

 

[crazyoranges]

regenerate

my b. smithi lost a leg in a vial-closing accident when it was a tiny sling (never even saw him near the top!). i didn't know he'd lost the leg until i saw it slightly moving on the desk.

i agree that it's very weird to see.

how long did it take for it to regenerate the leg? coz my b. smithi is still a spiderling and it lost a leg and i was really worried! is it true that when it's still a spiderling, it will not take long for regeneration to occur unlike when it's older?