Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

It feels as though I have only just got these critters, but the first spiny leaf insect has matured. It's hardly surprising. Since they arrived, these stick insects have decimated the raspberry plants that I grow in my garden. I am constantly clipping fresh leaves to put into their enclosure, and they have been molting quite often. The most recent molt for this one has resulted in a mature male stick insect. The easiest way to tell that it is mature is the presence of wings, as nymphs generally don't have wings, and a subadult insect can have at the most wing nubs. So this insect suddenly emerging from his molt with wings tells me he is mature. The presence of full length, fully functional wings tells me that this is a male. Female stick insects tend to be much larger than males, and only have vestigial wings that can't carry their bulky weight. This guy is long and skinny, indicating a male. Obviously, he is quite a bit larger than I was anticipating - most of the s...

It's my birthday! As it is my birthday and I am a Scorpio (not that I put any stock into astrology) I thought that we'd discuss Diablo some more. And as much as I'd like to think that Diablo is wishing me a Happy Birthday, the cold black of his eyes tells me otherwise.... Or, maybe I should say her eyes - yes, I now believe Diablo to be a girl. While I had Diablo out of the vivarium the other day to rehouse, I snapped this photo in the hopes of sexing her: Scorpions have two comblike structures called pectines which you can see in the photo above, or highlighted in this diagram below: Both sexes have these pectines, which they use as an additional sensory organ - each tooth of the comb is covered in chemoreceptors which have developed to detect scent trails, pheromones, or other chemical signals. Both sexes use them to track down prey or to find their way home to their burrow, for example. However, the male also uses his pectines to tract down receptive females for br...

I haven't had much to report on Ladybug for a little while. Ladybug is a very shy spider who spends most of his time hiding in his nest, only coming out when he's wanting to hunt. He's not overly sociable and he definitely doesn't like to be handled, which I have to respect. Since I got him I've been umming and ahhing about what gender he is - His colouration seemed to indicate that he was a female, as males are supposed to be scarlet red. However, after his most recent molt he seems to be developing the chonky front legs and the "boxing glove" pedipalps of a male. He is still clearly a sub-adult, so maybe his colouration will change with his next molt, but I definitely believe him to be a male now. You can clearly see that his front legs have become chonkier than his other six (all the better to dance the mamba with), and the tips of his pedipalps are becoming more bulbous. He may only have one molt left before he's mature and unfortunately I don...

The elusive Ziggy is out and about! Obviously that means he is hungry and looking for food, so I threw a small cricket into his enclosure, but not before I snapped a photo. I am pretty sure that he has molted again - He has got a series of tunnels under the substrate, so I don't actually see him out and about very often. Nor do I know when he's in premolt, molting, or molted! This is why I gave up on my Spood-sheet. I wasn't getting the information to properly update it! He definitely looks like he's just about doubled in size now, compared to when I first got him, and his legs are starting to look chinkier, and get that nice feathered look that old world T's tend to get - they look like they're wearing little leg warmers. His adult markings are starting to develop - you can clearly see the dark markings on his abdomen and the cream stripe down the middle, althouth he's not developing the blue and yellow that I'm so excited to see. That said, the ...