Deroplatys desiccata photos

[cat_h]

Hi Guys,

Starting a thread here for pics of my Deroplatys desiccata as they grow. Currently I have 2 females and 1 male. My photos aren't great, hopefully I'll get better in time!

Female 1: 

Was super chill when out exploring, wanted to hang out on the camera though more than pose for pics

 

[cat_h]

In an attempt to get her to stay still I offered her some food...

Cricket still in motion..





Here she's snacking on the head

 

[cat_h]

Couldn't quite get it to come out in the photo, but the level of mimicry in the leaf detail of the pronotum is astounding. Its almost translucent in places when the light hits it right. This is still the female:





I'm also fascinated by the sexual dimorphism in the shape of the pronotum (spot the scientist LOL) 

Female, with backward curving lower edge:





Male, with rounded lower edge (no curve back):





I'd be interested to know at what instar the dimorphism becomes apparent in Deroplatys species.

Thats it for now,

Thanks for looking!

Cat

 

[Ocelotbren]

Nice pictures!  I'm not at all familiar with the species, but I do see obvious wing buds on the male in the last picture, but not so much on the female in the previous pictures.  Are they about the same size?  Is it possible they're different instars?

 

[cat_h]

She is larger than he is by ~1cm in length and ~0.5cm width. Yeah they could be different instars. They were the same size when I got them about 4 weeks ago. The female moulted earlier this week, the male has not moulted yet with me. The second unmoulted female is still the same size as the male.

I asked the seller how many moults remained, he said he wasn't sure, but that he thought the male had 2 left and the females 1. If this was the case then the female should have been adult at the last moult so clearly there is a mix up somewhere along the line. Maybe the females had 2 left and the male only 1? The info I have on them suggests 9 moults for a female and 8 moults for a male, does this sound right?

 

[Ocelotbren]

Ah I see.  I am not sure about number of molts for this species and didn't see it in the caresheet either so someone else may have to confirm that.  But maybe the females arrived to you at L7, so you have an L7 and an L8 female now, and the male arrived at L8, so he has one molt left, hence the wing buds.  If the males are slightly smaller than the females in general, perhaps the L8 male could be about the same size as the L7 females too.

This is all inexperienced speculation, but those are my thoughts.

 

[cat_h]

Well, the male moulted to adult on 12th August. He's a handsome chap, can't believe how different he looks. Today is the first time I saw him eat since the moult, quite relieved as he hadn't shown any interest the couple days previous. Here are a couple pics while he was occupied munching away...








Thanks for looking!

Cat

 

[Ocelotbren]

Very handsome!  Makes me want to try the species myself even more.

 

[Connor]

Man, they are stunning. Makes me want to get one!