Vineagroon egg sac, 2nd sac, no male for 15 months, fertile?

RzezniksRunAway

Arachnobaron
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Dec 4, 2012
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308
Edit: I seriously can't spell, and I can't edit the thread title. =(
I've been absent from here for a while, but Vinnie (our female Mastigoproctus giganteus) produced an eggsac not too long after we got her last year in February. Right around the time it was due to hatch, she ate it. I was just doing some stuff in the animal room and decided to check on her. She went through a period of practically begging for food every few days, then disappeared. I kind of assumed molt, but it wasn't. She now has another sac. I can't see much through her burrow, there's only a tiny space on the bottom glass that's wiped away, enough for me to see that she's definitely alive and definitely holding a sac. Is there a potential it's fertile? It's been 15 months since she's been with a male. Her first sac appeared to be viable, it looked like it was developing right along the lines of the photos I've seen of them.
 
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RzezniksRunAway

Arachnobaron
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Dec 4, 2012
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308
Thanks Schmiggle, I read over that. Sadly, the sac wasn't fertile. I peeked in on her and one egg was starting to turn brown, and it looked like there was a little bit of fungus happening. The next day I checked and there was definitely fungus, so I disturbed her burrow and she ate a majority of the sac. I dug her out the next morning and gave her a roach. She's doing fine. I was hopeful, but it wasn't meant to be. =(
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
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Just a reminder to all animal keepers to learn as much as possible and be aware of the habits, traits, and general lives of your animals.

In nature, with some families, genera, and species, many really, the mating cycle is the penultimate purpose. It is also, commonly, the most hazardous time of the animals life cycle. This becomes increasingly more apparent when dealing with evolved, specialized predators that are very rarely communal. This evolution is often closely reflected by the females ability to retain live sperm over extended periods of time. Each mating subjects the male to the most hazardous time of it's life.

So with a very specialized, highly adapted animal like Thelyphonida, a lot can be learned by the animals breeding. They aren't out by the millions banging away like termites or mayflies. Quite possibly the mating is a chance of a lifetime one shot deal. This gives you a rough formula to work with. Population in a given area where the animals are likely to encounter each other multiplied by the average life span divided by likelihood of multiple matings equals sperm retention capability. This is also the basic formula used to determine how social any given species it.

The latrodectus have been studied extensively on this front. In hostile environments with relatively few mating participants available, as the L Hasseltii in the hostile Australian outback, the female commonly retains sperm for her entire life span. In less hostile areas with abundant populations as the L Hesperus, the female may retain sperm only a few weeks or months. This is also an indicator of the animal's native environments as it evolved.

So your Vinegaroon's egg sack viability is in fact a text book telling you a lot about the animal, it's habits, habitat and origin.
 
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