Vinegaroon from Reptile Expo

[arizonablue]

I feel very lucky to live in Tucson, as we have all sorts of fun things happening down here. I get rocks at the gem show every year to spruce up my tank decor, and I get to go looking for interesting bugs at the Reptile Expo.

This was the first year I went, and I narrowly avoided getting a spectacular crocodile gecko. But I promised myself I was sticking to bugs, so I only came home with some death-feigning beetles (a handful of blues and some smooths from Arizona and California) and a vinegaroon. Not nearly as many beetles as I was hoping for, but I got to look at some incredible snakes and lizards.

The vinegaroon appears to be a female, and she likes to dig! (God I hope she isn't gravid.) I have her in a small tank with a cork bark hide at the moment, and she's going to get an upgrade as soon as I move my wolf spider and her egg sac into a smaller enclosure to avoid baby spiders everywhere. The vinegaroon made short work of a cricket last night and has been exploring and digging holes in all the corners, but her favorite spot seems to be the moist spot beneath the cork.

 

[All About Arthropods]

Very cool, I love vinegaroons and actually have a pair myself.

That appears to be a male though, due to the slim body and large pedipalps.

Females have smaller, more compact pedipalps and are usually a bit bulkier.

 

[arizonablue]

Very cool, I love vinegaroons and actually have a pair myself.

That appears to be a male though, due to the slim body and large pedipalps.

Females have smaller, more compact pedipalps and are usually a bit bulkier.

Thanks, it very well might be! The underside looked similar to a female on an illustration I found, but this is my first vinegaroon so I have zero experience looking up their skirts.

 

[Ratmosphere]

I love it!

 

[arizonablue]

The vinegaroon got his (gonna assume it's a male, thanks to the previous advice) tank upgrade. I buried a hollow log in the substrate for him to hide in, which he seems to love. He's been spending all of his time inside of it and hasn't been digging at all, so presumably it's the perfect burrow.



Well, perfect except for the occasional light at the end of the tunnel ...

I pushed the log right up against the glass and taped a piece of thick cardstock paper on the glass. The burrow is pitch-dark for him with the "door" shut, but if I want to peek in to see how he's doing or show him off, I don't have to fish him out of his house.

 

[Ratmosphere]

Wonderful setup and idea!

 

[arizonablue]

I got a couple decent shots of the vinegaroon's underside while it was burrowing (apparently my cork bark log idea is slightly less than ideal although it's still spending a lot of time in it), and I was hoping someone can help me figure out if it's male or female. This is the picture I was using as a guide, and to me it still looks closer to the female illustration. Anybody with more experience have some input? Thanks!

 

[Hisserdude]

I'm no expert when it comes to vinegaroons, but i will say it does look a lot like a female. I'm sure it's wild caught, so it may just look skinny compared to other females just because it's underfed.

 

[Lucanus]

Yours is an adult male. The picture you are using as a reference is of asian species, which has different sternite shape than our native species.

Here're some pics for reference. 

Male

Female

 

[Among]

Will it be a male or female? It's from Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India.