Gravid female D.tityus

Jordan

Jordan

Pupa
When I checked on my gravid D.tityus female today she seemed a little stiff. She was all the way in a jelly container that I put some banana in but most of it was eaten. When I pulled her out she has moving a tiny bit but seemed kind of stiff and dry and defiantly not moving as much as usual. This isn't a normal thing when gravid is is? I doubt it but I'm willing to question anything on what could be wrong. Maybe it's just natural?

This is my only female and the care of her and getting eggs to continue with D.tityus is important to me so any info is helpful info.

Thanks,

Jordan

 
Did you get to see insertion? or the "string" that sticks out of the female after a pairing?

Sometimes my females will dive deep into the jelly containers, but usually are alert when brought or, some may take longer, but eventually they all quickly bury and disappear if disturbed.

 
I have a gravid female, and I am not sure exactly what she needs after the feeding. I gave her brown sugar water on a sponge and she ate that till she was tired of it. I then made up some Beetle Jelly and she in not so interested. I know that she needs to get to being buried and lay eggs. What do I need to provide for her? I have a deep container. I have organic potting soil and I can also provide for her a hollow 6" diameter log of bamboo. Please anybody that can offer me some advise I would greatly appreciate it.

 
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Rich, you need proper substrate.

The potting soil *may* only be of help if the grubs are going to build pupal cells, for her to lay eggs in viable substrate you need hardwood leaf/wood mulch with a depth of some 10-12", the bottom 4" should be compressed tightly.

No need for that bamboo log.

also, make sure the substrate is damp.

 
Thanks! I happen to have collected several gallons of Oak leaf and rotten oak mulch last year. I will place this thickness tomorrow. I have it now, but only a shallow depth of 6".

 
Good news! My female is acting as usual again. I've used beetle jelly since i've had her but ran out and switched to bananas which I found incredibly inconvenient due to the odor, quick rotting, and worst off all the unwanted fruit flies and tons of mites it caused which I never has with jelly. With all the mites and thinking she would be laying eggs soon I decided the best idea would be to get more jelly and replace the infested substrate to get rid of the mites. The beetle jelly came today so I was quick to start changing out the substrate but figured I should still check the old substrate for eggs. The mating happened on the 13th of May so I wasn't really thinking there would be eggs yet since from what I have heard it takes about a month or two before you should check but I may have just been thinking of the one month rule too literally.

I dug through the old substrate and found 31 eggs! 33 in total were found but 2 of them had large black stops and clearly had no shot but all the other ones looked like they were in great shape.

Needless to say I'm pretty happy that I started this thread worrying about my females health and can come back with double the good news!

 
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