Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:24 pm Post subject: P. ornata
The official writeup:
Successful? Yes
Special care or preliminary notes: Female molted on 6/7/08. Male was not witnessed making a sperm web although he was given ample opportunity to make one.
How they were paired: Male was introduced a a few times initially. Female showed little interest in mating. Although she was tapping, she wouldn't come far out of her hide. There was no aggression towards the male. I then put the male and female's opened enclosures in a rubbermaid container for a period of 2 weeks. They cohabited from 7/20/08 to 8/03/08. Every time I'd open the container, the male was observed just sitting on her piece of cork bark. I figured if they hadn't mated in the 2 weeks they were cohabitating, they weren't going to do it at all. The male was then sent off to a new female.
Observations on the hookup: No hookup was witnessed.
Special post mating care: No cooling period was given to the female. However, I did give a dry period. The female's enclosure was not misted or allowed any type of moisture other than a water dish from 8/03/08 to 10/18/08. At this time, eggs can be clearly seen in her abdomen by holding a flashlight up to it. I then began to flood her enclosure by pouring about 20 oz or so of water in it, but being careful not to allow water to seep into her hide. I also misted her enclosure about twice a week until a sac was produced.
Time to sac: Sac was produced on 12/05/08. 124 days after the cohabitation period ended.
Care of the sac - The egg sac was pulled on 1/06/09. The eggs were in the eggs-with-legs stage. The incubator consisted of a plastic shoebox with 2 rows of holes melted in the lid and the bottom lined with paper towels. The paper towels were to remain constantly wet at all times. The eggs-with-legs were then placed in a deli cup lined with a coffee filter and the open deli was placed in the shoebox container. I encountered some problems with incubation. At one point, it appeared as if the eggs were becoming dehydrated. It was suggested to me to lightly mist the eggs to rehydrate them. I did and continued to do so every week or so until they reached 1st instar. 1st instar was reached on 1/30/09. I still continued to mist to keep the coffee filter moist, but not soaked. The 1st instar then began to darken on 2/20/09 and I decided to separate them at this time. 2nd instar was then reached on 2/24/09.
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