My new unusual pet

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Cool insect... what a life?

Waiting for your footage...

Thanks for sharing

 
dmina said:
what a life?
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I'm having a hard time understanding if that's a true question, a rhetorical question or something else, lol

I still dont have enough and/or decent footage for a video. I wasn't expecting my latest catches to pupate so early either, so I went out find some more. I'll probably get the video done next week.

 
LOL... not a question really.. just meaning... that it can survive on pretty much nothing for up to 3 years.. not much going on in it's world..

But really cool creature.

 
Here it is. A video showing their hunting skills and their fast acting venom.

Don't blink too much or you'll miss some of the action.

The video will be working in about 5 to 10 minutes

 
OMG... Thant was awesome! The video camera was so good ... it didn't miss a thing...

That antlion was wicked!

 
dmina said:
OMG... Thant was awesome! The video camera was so good ... it didn't miss a thing...

That antlion was wicked!
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Cheers! Actually it was a digital photographic camera that took the footage. Even I was impressed when I got it. :D

Sooo, my last antlion has been doing pretty much nothing since I posted this video until this week. He refused food, kept wandering around in the enclosure and I figured he was going to pupate and I know it will take a while. So I left him be. Now a month has passed and to my surprise he didn't pupate but molted!

He's now bigger and meaner than ever. Keep in mind he didn't eat or drink for an entire month and he's alive and kicking.

DSCN6345.jpg


 
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Wow... he is a lot bigger.. How many times do they molt? wow... thanks for keeping us updated!

Now go feed that monster!

 
According to some research I made, they only molt twice in their larval stage, which is surprising. Their entire life cycle is weird, actually.

For now I fed him a common housefly but I'll get him some bigger prey soon.

 
I've kept those with my friend before, the larva are quite easy but neither of us managed to get the adult emerging.

 
Forcep said:
I've kept those with my friend before, the larva are quite easy but neither of us managed to get the adult emerging.
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The adults are not interesting to keep. I put the cocoons in an open jar with sand and twigs next to an open window. 2 Antlions already pupated, emerged and left. I never seen them emerging but they left their old skins and a hole in the cocoons.

 
Domanating said:
Surprise surprise! Yesterday I took a stroll on sandy area close to a beach and I found 2 more antilions while following their characteristic doodles on the sand. I've seen these weird long drawings in the sand before but I would never guessed they were made by antilions. One similar size to the first but way darker and the second about half the size of the others.

Even more surprising their behavior is different. The smaller one builds pits! The darker one, unlike my first antilion, prefers to drag their meal below the sand.

I'm building up footages so I can show you later but it will take a while
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Those are everywhere in my back yard!

 
That Portuguese antlion is much larger than the ones I have seen here in Florida, how long are they?

Great video, and quite a diverse diet of hoppers.

Thank you for sharing.

 
amamantodea said:
That Portuguese antlion is much larger than the ones I have seen here in Florida, how long are they?

Great video, and quite a diverse diet of hoppers.

Thank you for sharing.
Click to expand...
As far as I know I might have caught 2 different species of antlion.

The first antlion was almost 2cm (0.8 inches) long when it pupated.

The 2nd antlion, which had the unexpected molt I posted above, was also 2cm long pre-molt, but now it's about 3cm (1.2 inches) long. I assume this one's a female.

These 2 antlions hunted and behaved the same way. They don't build pits.

The 3rd antlion was easily 2 times smaller than the others before pupating (1cm/ 0.4 inches long). This one built pits.

 
Hey, I have some interesting news.

My latest posted ant lion has survived the Winter starvation without issues and pupated a few weeks ago.

What's interesting is the fact that it failed to make the cocoon so it pupated out in the open, which allowed me a glance to the middle stages of pupation.

For those that don't know, Antlion when cocooned do 2 things: first they metamorphose to something that resembles the adult and 2nd they molt right after making an opening in the cocoon with their new set of jaws.

Here's what he it looks like after metamorphosis

5ab4c1ac-85f8-4ff6-af3d-8b52a6dcfc70.jpg


Not sure how it will behave without a cocoon to open when he's ready to molt, though.

 
I need to go outside and dig them up... Now I want to breed these too! Love antlions! Grew up watching them.

 
Nice, thanks for sharing your unusual pet. Makes me want to go check the sandy areas around nearby creeks for some. ;)

Too bad about the molt problem, let us know how it turns out.

 
Well, it turns out not having a cocoon is a death sentence. The antlion died yesterday. There were obvious stretch marks in its abdomen indicating struggle to molt. I guess without the cocoon to hold on it wasn't able to free itself out of the old skin.

Off to find more antilions I guess.

 

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