Skip to main content

Wilma molted, so here's her little cap

So, Wilma just got through a major milestone with me - her first molt. Now, ordinarily this wouldn't be a major issue - my other spoods molt all the time. I'm not sure a week goes by where someone hasn't molted. But with Wilma I was especially nervous, as a molt was exactly how I lost Winnie.

I'm not convinced that it was just molting that killed Winnie - I blame a husbandry mistake. I fed Winnie a waxworm as a treat. The waxworm was huge compared to Winnie but in the past she had dropped her prey when she got full. I couldn't get her to drop the waxworm. She held onto that thing like her life depended on it. In the end, she was massively bloated, definitely overfed, and I believe this triggered a premature molt. She had only molted a fortnight earlier, so definitely wasn't due to molt. When she molted, she had some sort of trouble, as she died very shortly after the molt. As such, I was very anxious about Wilma's first molt, even though I've been a lot more careful about what I feed her, and how much. Waxworms are definitely OFF the menu.

After molting, Wilma kicked her molt out of her nest, so I fished it out of her enclosure.
So here is her tiny little space helmet! I love how the little eyes are completely transparent and distort the light as it shines through. I am sure that if I put it under a microscope (Oooh - idea for a quiet day at work?) I would be able to see all eight of her little eye holes. As it is, I can see six.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Purple Spood has a Name

This new spood finally has a name! It has taken me a while to get around to it, because I was really struggling. I am really hoping that this spider is a male, because the males of this species take on a really vibrant purple colour once they grow on, while the females are a dusty brown. So I wanted a male name, but also something linked to the colour purple, to highlight my hopes for him. All of the purple-themed names I could think of sounded really girly, like "Lavender", or "Heather". But then it occurred to me - Purple Rain. My partner really came up with it, not me. But he's named after a certain purple singer/songwriter - Prince. Yeah, it might be cliche, but I'm really happy with it. So Prince it is!
Post a Comment
Read more

In Memoriam: Summer edition

Unfortunately, due to the delayed nature of the posting on this blog, the things that I write about in the Summer don't get published until Winter, or vice versa. That's the limitation of a prolific poster writing up a buffer, to be released at regular intervals. It doesn't usually pose a problem, but as I write this post in the middle of Autumn - firstly, it is not going to hit the blog until next year. Secondly, due to the nature of the content here, it may interrupt continuity - I am writing to remember the charming little critters that I lost over this summer. Some of the deaths were expected, there had been plenty of warning. Other deaths were...surprising. But while I mention them here, due to the pre written nature of the content to come, there may be posts further down the line where these names and faces crop up again, almost as though I hadn't lost them. I've been umming and ahhing over the best time to place this post, and to be honest - there's...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blogger Absences!

Sorry guys! I don't know if anyone actually reads my spider blog, but I'm sure if you do you'll have noticed that it's on a temporary hiatus. There are posts queued up, waiting to be edited and finished. I have plenty to write about, including the recent loss of my elderly mantis Catchy, and the rehousing of my Poecilotheria metallica (which was tense). But right now it has to wait, as I am currently juggling my job, my fmaily, and now my new Masters degree in Environmental Management. I will come back and update on all the lovely (and not so lovely) things that my critters have been up to. But for now, I'm afraid it will have to wait. Be safe all, and don't squish that spider!
Post a Comment
Read more