Babycurus jacksoni molting (pix heavy) update

Very nicely captured! Did that just happen? What instar is it at?

Yes sir, just happened last night. I could never get a straight answer out of the breeder on what instar the two are at; I'm guessing four.

3 into 4? Did you get a chance to measure them? I could give you a good estimate from measurements.

I'd say 3.5

That's adult size. Is that an estimate from mandible to telson or from pedipalps to telson?

Pedipalp to telson, approximate. Here, this will definitely help my amatuer estimates..

nice one bro

i4-i5, 2.5" - you've got one or two more molts to maturity.

Thanks Lester, appreciate it. Stood by and watched for about 1.5 hours on this one. Still on a watch for the two LQ's to go anytime.

Rasputin wrote:

i4-i5, 2.5" - you've got one or two more molts to maturity.

Sweet, thanks for the help on that.

No prob - I help where I can.

PaperTiger wrote:

Stood by and watched for about 1.5 hours on this one. Still on a watch for the two LQ's to go anytime.

I stood around and watched my adult male P. irminia clean himself for an hour last night - I need a barstool so I can just sit in front of my enclosures and watch my animals do stuff all night.

Yeah, I sat on the floor with my back against the fridge and fell asleep (third shift worker) waiting for this one. Got two LQ's taking forever and a A. australis about to go as well next.

I miss having an army of scorps.

great pics man

reckon it hurts um when they molt ?

regards sam

gramps wrote:

great pics man

reckon it hurts um when they molt ?

regards sam

Sam, I'm akin to say it probably feels quite nice to molt - imagine being stuck in skin that's too small for your body and being able to shed that skin and stretch out.

When I was watching him and trying to stay awake, I could have sworn I heard him grunt.

PaperTiger wrote:

When I was watching him and trying to stay awake, I could have sworn I heard him grunt.

Stunning scorp, the colours straight after the moult are so fresh and vivid, the scorp just pops. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Weird! I've never seen one molt face-up like that. Most of my cast exuviae that I find are face-down.

Gramps, I'm guessing it feels like removing a really tight pair of jeans.

And I definitely agree with Ras on the age -- the tail's too skinny for an adult female but the chela are too skinny for an adult male.

Mr. Mordax wrote:

Weird! I've never seen one molt face-up like that. Most of my cast exuviae that I find are face-down.

Touche, they usually molt facing the ground. The reason, I can see, for the scorp having molted the way it did is that the vert might not be tall enough. Hey PaperTiger, can you take some pix of the enclosure so I can see the climbing surface in comparison to the terra firma of the enclosure?

Yes sir I will. The enclosure had an upright fiber (as pictured) and they keep knocking over like the "housekeeping" LQ's keep rearranging the covers. So this one pictured is a female?

No, Mike wasn't sexing it but rather pointing out that it is still too young to tell by those pix. Not that it can't be sexed but that we aren't going to take a stab at it at this juncture based on those pix.

Ok thanks, jumped the gun a bit

No prob. I bet if you got some good close-ups of the scorp and maybe a clear shot of the pectines, we could sex it.