TheBeesKnees
Well-known member
So, a few months ago, I had found a wild Hyllus diardi/"heavy jumper" in a rubber plantation, and took her home.
She promptly spun herself into a cocoon and died a few weeks later, much to my dismay. I wasn't sure what I did wrong, and for that reason, I was pretty certain I wanted to just stick with raising what I actually know about (mantids)--and leave the poor arachnids alone from then on.
Being exceptionally busy,I didn't have much time to clean out the deceased girl's terrarium, so it had been tucked away on a shelf in my office, with no lid.
Cut to last week, my fiance spotted a very tiny jumping spider wandering across his laptop screen, and called me over to look at it. After a brief inspection, I said "Man, it looks like a miniature Fleur (the name I gave my heavy girl)". But--you know...there are countless species of jumping spiders in thailand, and what were the chances that an H. diardi hatchling just happened to show up in our office? Pretty unlikely. I scooped it up, and put it out in my garden.
When I returned to the office, I spotted another one on the wall! Odd... I scooped her up as well, but now I was legitimately curious. Where were these babies coming from!?
I turned my eyes up to the ceiling, and I'm sure you can guess by now, the sight that met me was pretty astounding. Countless little jumping babies stared back at me. The ceiling was covered in them!
It turns out that Fleur had laid eggs before she died--and now, the hatchlings were all over my office.
I released a bunch, and kept a bunch... They're living in a very large terrarium together right now. I haven't really taken any photos of them, they're so tiny--but today, a pair of them were hanging out very close to the terrarium glass, so I snapped some quick shots with my phone's camera:
I can only count 5 or 6 of them at any given time, but as you can see from that last photo, the enclosure is huge, and they are very tiny...so I don't actually know how many little broodlings are in there right now...
Also, it seems strange that all the babies appear to be female. Male and female Hyllus look very different in adulthood--but do they all start off looking female? Or...did the hatchlings eat all the males before I was able to catch them? Or...could parthenogenesis be possible? I was scouring for some males (because if this works out, I would have liked to breed them), but the hatchlings all looked identical. I get really skeptical about the idea of parthenogenesis though. I'm wondering if the males just look like the females at a young age, and then mature to develop male features? Or does temperature/light/humidity play a factor in whether or not males are hatched?
????? I want boys B|
(also, any advice in raising these little broodlings would be great, if you have any experience with heavy jumpers!)
She promptly spun herself into a cocoon and died a few weeks later, much to my dismay. I wasn't sure what I did wrong, and for that reason, I was pretty certain I wanted to just stick with raising what I actually know about (mantids)--and leave the poor arachnids alone from then on.
Being exceptionally busy,I didn't have much time to clean out the deceased girl's terrarium, so it had been tucked away on a shelf in my office, with no lid.
Cut to last week, my fiance spotted a very tiny jumping spider wandering across his laptop screen, and called me over to look at it. After a brief inspection, I said "Man, it looks like a miniature Fleur (the name I gave my heavy girl)". But--you know...there are countless species of jumping spiders in thailand, and what were the chances that an H. diardi hatchling just happened to show up in our office? Pretty unlikely. I scooped it up, and put it out in my garden.
When I returned to the office, I spotted another one on the wall! Odd... I scooped her up as well, but now I was legitimately curious. Where were these babies coming from!?
I turned my eyes up to the ceiling, and I'm sure you can guess by now, the sight that met me was pretty astounding. Countless little jumping babies stared back at me. The ceiling was covered in them!
It turns out that Fleur had laid eggs before she died--and now, the hatchlings were all over my office.
I released a bunch, and kept a bunch... They're living in a very large terrarium together right now. I haven't really taken any photos of them, they're so tiny--but today, a pair of them were hanging out very close to the terrarium glass, so I snapped some quick shots with my phone's camera:
I can only count 5 or 6 of them at any given time, but as you can see from that last photo, the enclosure is huge, and they are very tiny...so I don't actually know how many little broodlings are in there right now...
Also, it seems strange that all the babies appear to be female. Male and female Hyllus look very different in adulthood--but do they all start off looking female? Or...did the hatchlings eat all the males before I was able to catch them? Or...could parthenogenesis be possible? I was scouring for some males (because if this works out, I would have liked to breed them), but the hatchlings all looked identical. I get really skeptical about the idea of parthenogenesis though. I'm wondering if the males just look like the females at a young age, and then mature to develop male features? Or does temperature/light/humidity play a factor in whether or not males are hatched?
????? I want boys B|
(also, any advice in raising these little broodlings would be great, if you have any experience with heavy jumpers!)
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