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I picked up 6 Psalmopeus cambridgei sub-adults back in June/July 2021.
2 were suspected female, 1 was freshly molted molt-sexed male and the other 3 were unsexed. They were all around 4" in were living in 32oz deli cups when I got them. The male was considerably smaller than the others and not quite well. He had a weird spot on his abdomen and passed after a few weeks having eaten at first but then declining to ultimately his demise.
They eventually all molted; 3 we're female and 2 ultimate males. I rehoused them all into gallon jugs, the largest female into an exo terra nano tall. She's Female A.
It's a bioactive enclosure with live moss, springtails, isopods and leaf litter. Sorry about the glare.
She made a shallow dirt curtain hide in the base of the 3/4 round cork bark but she is out on the regular, at least every evening/overnight. She eventually retreats when daylight or I appear.
Here she is outside her cork bark before being paired. Lovely orange flashing on her tarsus and pedipalps.
She's skittish, slightly defensive and an aggressive hunter; I would often not be able to discern her from the cork bark in passing.
I successively paired all 3 females with both males in late August 2021. The boys survived all pairings and I still have them and they look great. Here's one of them on the left next to Female B. I will attempt to re-pair them all soon.
If you haven't guessed, I got very creative with names, Females A, B and C and Males A and B.
(I hate those little post-it note strips, they keep dropping off)
Well, the two smaller females molted in late October 2021, but not Female A. One day I noticed her burrowing inside her shallow dirt curtain hide, going quite deep. In a few days' time she'd excavated what turned out to be an egg chamber in the base of the cork bark 3/4 round.
In early December she stopped hunting and I found dead crickets in her enclosure, water dish, etc; deceased, not killed and not eaten. I suspected she, too, had molted out in private, or was possibly sitting on a sac.
I teased her hide with some water after New Year's and got a reaction from within - time to investigate.
I coaxed her out on January 5, 2022 with a long zip tie and she charged hard, attacking the zip tie with more ferocity than usual. I kept her entertained with a second zip tie and investigated in the chamber with a long, Harry Potter wand my daughter gave up one - an egg sac
Here's the open egg chamber, opened up.
I fed her the next afternoon, 4 large crickets. She pounced on them. I also noticed she was repairing her egg chamber - this was interesting...
You can see 3 of her legs working from the inside to re-fortify the exterior wall of the chamber.
The sac is in the incubator now. I suspect she was sitting on it for about 20-21 days, maybe longer.
I will turn the sac a few times a day, just like mom does, and in about a week I'll open it to check progress.
Fingers crossed!
2 were suspected female, 1 was freshly molted molt-sexed male and the other 3 were unsexed. They were all around 4" in were living in 32oz deli cups when I got them. The male was considerably smaller than the others and not quite well. He had a weird spot on his abdomen and passed after a few weeks having eaten at first but then declining to ultimately his demise.
They eventually all molted; 3 we're female and 2 ultimate males. I rehoused them all into gallon jugs, the largest female into an exo terra nano tall. She's Female A.
It's a bioactive enclosure with live moss, springtails, isopods and leaf litter. Sorry about the glare.
She made a shallow dirt curtain hide in the base of the 3/4 round cork bark but she is out on the regular, at least every evening/overnight. She eventually retreats when daylight or I appear.
Here she is outside her cork bark before being paired. Lovely orange flashing on her tarsus and pedipalps.
She's skittish, slightly defensive and an aggressive hunter; I would often not be able to discern her from the cork bark in passing.
I successively paired all 3 females with both males in late August 2021. The boys survived all pairings and I still have them and they look great. Here's one of them on the left next to Female B. I will attempt to re-pair them all soon.
If you haven't guessed, I got very creative with names, Females A, B and C and Males A and B.
(I hate those little post-it note strips, they keep dropping off)
Well, the two smaller females molted in late October 2021, but not Female A. One day I noticed her burrowing inside her shallow dirt curtain hide, going quite deep. In a few days' time she'd excavated what turned out to be an egg chamber in the base of the cork bark 3/4 round.
In early December she stopped hunting and I found dead crickets in her enclosure, water dish, etc; deceased, not killed and not eaten. I suspected she, too, had molted out in private, or was possibly sitting on a sac.
I teased her hide with some water after New Year's and got a reaction from within - time to investigate.
I coaxed her out on January 5, 2022 with a long zip tie and she charged hard, attacking the zip tie with more ferocity than usual. I kept her entertained with a second zip tie and investigated in the chamber with a long, Harry Potter wand my daughter gave up one - an egg sac
Here's the open egg chamber, opened up.
I fed her the next afternoon, 4 large crickets. She pounced on them. I also noticed she was repairing her egg chamber - this was interesting...
You can see 3 of her legs working from the inside to re-fortify the exterior wall of the chamber.
The sac is in the incubator now. I suspect she was sitting on it for about 20-21 days, maybe longer.
I will turn the sac a few times a day, just like mom does, and in about a week I'll open it to check progress.
Fingers crossed!
