My Jerusalem Crickets, Stenopelmatus sp.

[Hisserdude]

Oh no! Bad girl Swirl!! Bad bad bug!!!
So sorry hun that sucks :/

Yeah, it's a real shame, now I'm down to one male. I really hope he got to mate with her before she ate him, I'm not sacrificing my other male to her lol!

 

[Hisserdude]

Well something horrible just happened.

I tried pairing up my last male, Tiny, with another one of my females, Gap. At first things looked good, she seemed somewhat receptive and he tried hooking up with her. But then he got turned around and started biting her belly, so I split them up. He tried again to mate with her and ended up biting her belly, not drawing blood mind you, but then she bit his back, which did draw blood.

I've separated them of course, there is a bunch of substrate stuck to his back where the wound is, I can't tell how bad it is. Do any of you guys have experience with wounds on your bugs' abdomens? Is he a gonner basically? Should I try and mate him with another female so his last few hours won't be for nothing, or is there a chance he may live? Any advice on the matter would be appreciated.

EDIT:
It's been about an hour now and it would seem that the bleeding has stopped, only a little bit of substrate is stuck to the wound, which does not seem that big. However I don't know how deep it is or if it cuts into any vital organs. I'm really don't know what to do, should I let him rest and see if he heals, or if he is going to die anyway should I just try to get him to mate with another female so my whole breeding project isn't for nothing?

 

[Hisserdude]

Well, a lot of stuff has happened, which I've described in more depth on my blog, but here I'll just try to condense it down to this:
After being bit by Gap, Tiny surprisingly recovered and his wound scabbed up, after a few days I put him in with a different female, Ripper, which after a long and interesting mating ritual ended very successfully as you can see here:

About three days later, I put him in with Sam, who he had been in with for about a week in a large enclosure previously, however no mating was ever seen. So, just to ensure that she would be fertile, I mated him with her, which also ended successfully, as you can see here:

I got a video of this last pairing showing most of the late mating process, however I shot the footage late at night so the lighting and video quality is not the best, just a a head's up:

Here's hoping I get some eggs from these girls!

 

[Telson]

Awesome! Congrats Dude! If you sell any babies let me know

 

[Kymura]

Fingers crossed for you hun!

 

[Mera Mera no Mi]

poor males

 

[Hisserdude]

Awesome! Congrats Dude! If you sell any babies let me know

Thanks, will definitely let you know if I have babies available for sale, if I can get eggs that is. As tricky as mating them has been, the hardest part by far is getting them to oviposit, only one person in the world has able to get a female JC to oviposit, and she got egg-block and died after laying the first egg.

Fingers crossed for you hun!

Thanks, I appreciate your support!

poor males

I know, poor guys definitely don't have it easy.

 

[Hisserdude]

Unfortunately, my male Jerusalem cricket, Jiminy, has died. He was only able to mate with two females successfully, I tried mating him with another recently but he was unable to deposit a spermatophore after he almost aligned his genital hooks four times, he seemed to be tired so I let separated them and let him rest, sure enough he died less than a week later.

I assume that getting bit on the back did cause some damage to him, and it probably severely shortened his lifespan. Hopefully I'll be able to get the two females he mated with to lay some eggs.

 

[Kymura]

Aw damn...sorry hun. I was so hoping he'd be okay. Fingers crossed for viable eggs from his ladies.

 

[Hisserdude]

Aw damn...sorry hun. I was so hoping he'd be okay. Fingers crossed for viable eggs from his ladies.

Yeah, me too. At least he was able to mate with two females successfully, hopefully I'll get some eggs from them.

 

[Nastyjabs]

So I just found a JC while exploring at the park with my kids. How can you tell if it's a male or female and if it's mature? Here's a photo

 

[Hisserdude]

So I just found a JC while exploring at the park with my kids. How can you tell if it's a male or female and if it's mature? Here's a photo View attachment 20397

Can't determine gender without a clear picture of it's rear, if it's a female it will have a very short, stubby ovipositor, and males won't. It's actually pretty hard to sex them, especially if they are young, yours looks pretty big though so with a good picture of it's behind I should be able to sex it.

 

[Hisserdude]

Success, I found 12 eggs in Ripper's enclosure and one in Sam's enclosure, though more should follow! Fingers crossed they end up hatching!

Here are some pictures of Ripper's eggs:







Unfortunately Swirl has died, apparently when she killed the male I tried to mate her with he got some bites in as well, her underside was black and scabbed up, and her legs were pretty bitten up too, only noticed it a month ago. So it looks like she never even mated, which sucks, was hoping to get some offspring from her. Just thought I'd let you guys know, I know @Kymura was fond of her.

 

[Nastyjabs]

Bummer...hopefully those eggs hatch and you get some cool patterns out of them!

 

[Hisserdude]

Bummer...hopefully those eggs hatch and you get some cool patterns out of them!

Thanks, me too! If all goes well they should hatch within a month!

 

[Evanthomas]

Congrats on the eggs!

I'm excited to see what comes of this, I just read the thread from start to now and feel like I just started a new TV series.

 

[Hisserdude]

Congrats on the eggs!

I'm excited to see what comes of this, I just read the thread from start to now and feel like I just started a new TV series.

Thanks, same female that laid the first clutch of twelve eggs laid a dozen more the other day, if all goes well, I'll be swimming in baby JCs before long lol!

Will be sure to keep you posted, glad you like the thread so much.

 

[Pasodama]

Read this thread and enjoyed it (though there were some sad moments).
The breeding, wow, that is crazy.
Poor males have to be contortionists in order to breed. LoL
Wish you luck with the eggs.

 

[Hisserdude]

Read this thread and enjoyed it (though there were some sad moments).
The breeding, wow, that is crazy.
Poor males have to be contortionists in order to breed. LoL
Wish you luck with the eggs.

Thanks, unfortunately I just checked the eggs yesterday and found that over half of the first batch of eggs have molded over and decomposed.

 

[Evanthomas]

Thanks, unfortunately I just checked the eggs yesterday and found that over half of the first batch of eggs have molded over and decomposed.

oh man, I hope the rest are ok, I've never hatched any type of crickets before I wish I could offer advice.