I finally decided to get a new desk pet this week. She is a Chilean rose 4" long or at least I believe it's a she. I'm assuming she is fully grown and mature at this size and since she doesn't have tibial spurs that would make her female correct? She has a small water dish and lightly damp potting soul in her home that is kept away from bright lights. She eats well and moves around often. Overall, she seems healthy and happy. I got her at my local pet store for $12 ( good price I think ) but I have no ideal if she is wild or captive bred.

It is hard to find what is left of her meals but I'll be sure to get better at it. My little girl named her Jesse. She is a pretty cool spider pet. Absolutely fascinating to watch.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e...ne/HPIM2490.jpg

__________________

rosies like soil dry.

if my rose's soil is damp in any way, she will climb the glass or chill on her rock till it drys.

also, watch out what soil you use, no fertilizers. they can kill your spider.

all in all, they are fun i have a female, wait till you feed them mice. and congrats on your new pet!

__________________

yeah, thumbs up for getting an arachnid!


My male vagans is doing fine. Im feeding him cockroaches for a couple of weeks now. I strongly advise them to any spider-hobbyist. They might be slightly more expensive than your average cricket, but they practically eat anything and won't die even if you want them to!

my two guttatta-snakes are doing great as well. having animals kicks ass!

__________________

Cool, most likely it's a female, it could have one more molt left before it is full grown, so you never know I guess. Best to verify when it does shed. Looks good and healthy though! FF is right, that species generally doesn't like damp or moist substrate, leaving it bone dry is perfectly fine...just make sure to have a water dish in there. Being that you bought her as an adult and from a pet store, 99% chance she is wild caught.

Yea, it is tough at first to find the left over remains from food..it blends in very well. Sometimes, if you are lucky, the spider will deposit the remains in the same place all the time. Makes cleaning up pretty easy. Doesn't always happen though.

Doc - Not only that, but they (roaches) don't stink nearly as much as crickets, nor do they chirp all the damn time. I HATE crickets. Glad to hear Mr. vagans is still hanging in there. You have any luck finding him a lady friend for the future?

I got to see my snake at my friends house when I was on leave. It's gotten a lot bigger! Should've taken a damn picture while I was there. At this point, it's just a little under 1" thick. Still pretty mellow too even though my friend doesn't handle it all that often. I miss having all those things around, but hopefully I'll have the chance to get my snake back and maybe buy one spider in the relatively near future.

Thanks guys. Her dirt completely dried up after the first few days. I soaked her potting soil and squeezed the shit out of it to help leech any poisons from it. It was damp but dry when I put it down for her. She didn't seem to mind it but I'll remember to dry it out before I give it to her in the future. She does have a water dish but I have yet to see her use it. She has covered the botton of her tank with web as well.

I like keeping Jesse on my desk to remind Mrs Soulinsane to not steal my pens I get very attached to my pens and she loses them within minites. It bothers me for days until I find them. Weird I know but it started while I was in the Navy. It sucks explaining that you can't record logs while on watch because your not responsible enough to maintain the location of an ink pen lol.

I also figured out that Jesse rolls the remains of her food into a dirt ball and puts them in the corners of her tank. Very interesting behavior. She is very organized in her little spider ways.

xgrafcorex, I remember there being several pet stores in the Hampton Roads area. A few had some very special and exotic pets, including servel types of spiders. http://animaljungle.com/ in Va Beach was were my girls loved to go. It was like going to the zoo there.

__________________

Covering the bottom of the tank with web usually means one of these things: 1. She doesn't like the feel (moisture) of the substrate below her. 2. She is making a molt mat to flip over onto and shed. 3. Random ass G. rosea behavoir. For that matter, spiders in general do plenty of strange things that sometimes can't be explained.

Thanks for the link..I'm gonna have to hold off on anything like that until I get back from deployment and am FINALLY settled in somewhere with a roommate that could help me take care of whatever it is when I am gone.

I have a fiddler crab and a western-hognose snake.

What happened to www.botarby8s.com?

__________________

Not sure, haven't looked at any of those sites in a while since I'm not buying anything anytime soon. Haven't been around on the forums that guy posts at much either, so I haven't heard anything about it.

here is an update on my camp:

my pink toe died froma bad molt about 2 weeks ago

my chilean rose is healthy and active as always, seems grumpy the last 2 days

Bossk, my bearded dragon is doing amazing as always, fuck i love the little bastard!!! I changed his diet from 90% crickets 10% veggies too: 90% veggies, and 10% suoer worms. about every 3rd day he gets some worms! funny thing is he will go the first day without eating after worms, and might hold out the 2nd day, and on the 3rd he will start to eat the greens, and the second he gets a worm, hes back to square one... GAH the regular beardie attitude.

today i got a brand new creamsicle corn snake!

im really excited, it is my first snake!

__________________

That's too bad. I milk my anaconda quite frequently.

__________________

lololol fgt

__________________

My first fiddler crab died this week. Me and my girlfriend are quite upset.

VIKING FUNERAL!!! FOREVER YE SHALL RIDE, MIGHTY SLEIPNIR!!!

__________________

gave my corn its first meal today, and WOW!

placed the pre-killed pink (de-frozen) in a container with it, and the corn just moved around it, and wanted nothing to do with its meal! grabbed a pair of tweesers and picked it up by the foot, didn't get a full wiggle in, and the corn striked at it and had it coiled in half a fucking second!!! spooked teh fuck out of me!

the cold side is 80, and the hot is 84.

__________________

I would try going a little lower with a corn snake. I'm not sure what the online guides say, but as a snake of mostly temperate regions, I'm sure the high side can be lower and the lower side can definitely be lower. If it's not an option for you, don't worry about it. If it is, turn it down a little. Try something like 74-80.

__________________

my bed room is 75 regular.

and i put a small under heater on the tank just so it can heat the h2o can sit on top to let the humidity stay at a good level (room is DRY). i have alot of paper towel down to keep the heat levels down too. with out PT its 95f hot

__________________

Got any pictures of your corn snake? What type is it?

My(girlfriend's) western hog nose is finally gaining some mass. We increased the feeding patterns. Now he eats one frozen pinky a week instead of one every two weeks.

Any tips on getting him to grow faster? His length is normal but he is freakn' skinny. He is around 20 months I think.

i have pics, but im too fucking lazy to get them uploaded.

its a creamsicle corn!

and from what i know, you should feed a snake every 7-10 days, so if you feed the snake every 5th day (thats if its still young, i think adults tend to slow their eating habbits down, im not sure though), it should grow more. however, it might just gain weight then size.

__________________

Thanks, we're gonna start feeding him live pinkies whenever he is hungry again. The funny thing is that we want him to gain more mass(increase in weight).

With young, you generally want to feed once or twice a week. With adults, you want to feed once every 7-14 days depending on the species of snake and what you are feeding it. A lot of larger zoo snakes are fed something huge (like a small goat) every few months, as an extreme example.

__________________

stay away from live shit man, that can give you alot of problems.

pet stores are also a bad place to get feeders.

at petsunlimited here where i live its 2 buck plus tax for a frozen pink

at the guy i deal with its .50 cents, and thats not "friends" price.


try to see if theres a local reptile forum, thats where i found the best place to get reptiles, and amazing prices on feeders! cuts my pet bill down alot!

__________________

Got my snake back today..here's a pic of it when I first bought it and then a pic of it tonight.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_3822s.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_7792s.jpg

haha someone grew a little!

my corn has been a prick as of late!

rattles and shit when i try to pick him up. I have been placing my hand in his cage and not moving it when hes out and about. but he stays away from it like the plague.

__________________

My other little one did that too...would bite me just about every single time but would calm down after I had it out of the tank.

I had a female green snake about 15 years ago and the only time it ever tried to strike was the day before she laid some eggs. Any chance you might be daddies?

__________________

Try throwing in a shirt you just wore. He'll get used to your scent that way.

Is that an anerythristic corn or a great plains rat snake? Great plains rat snakes look exactly like this, but tend to be a bit smaller than the extremely closely related corn snake.

__________________

Good idea!

I'm no expert, but it was purchased as an anery corn. Know of any specific physical characteristics that will determine which one it is for sure? ie. scale pattern on the head..

If it was sold as an anerythristic corn, that's probably what it is. Eastern corns are far more popular as captives than their drab colored brothers, the Great Plains rat snake. The irony is that the eastern corns are played around with so often that a million different color morphs have been selected for... including one nearly identical to the Great Plains rat snake.

They are nearly identical as species, the main thing we use to tell them apart in the wild is color... eastern corns are much brighter and full of beautiful oranges and reds. Great Plains rats are mostly brown on grey or dark grey on light grey... same exact pattern, just more drably colored. Now, there are some other differences. Great Plains rats tend to be a little bit smaller (average 2-3.5 feet vs. average 2.5-4 feet for eastern corns) and more thickly bodied than the eastern corns. Also, count the blotches. If it's more than 40, it's almost certainly a Great Plains rat (I say ALMOST because some eastern corns from the FL Keys can have over 50 blotches). If there are fewer than 40, it could be either one.

__________________

Hmm well I've "had" (quotes because a friend had it for about 1.5 years while I was in OCS and deployed) this snake since June of 06 and it's gone from that first pic, and these next couple to what it is in that most current pic. It has some growing to do..

I'll try and count the blotches/saddles next time I take it out. A store here offers free sexing. You recommend probing over popping? I've heard bad things about popping...then again some that have nothing negative to say. Don't feel comfortable probing myself..for one, I don't have the proper gear..two I don't want to hurt the snake. Someone said "post a pic of the tip of the tail to the cloaca" but I've read numerous times that it isn't a great method for sexing...either way this snake has a slowly tapering tail..which would lead me to say female.

The tail is actually a fairly accurate way to determine sex, the trick is being familiar enough with the individual species you're working with to know what is typical for that species. I don't work with corns, so I could only make an educated guess if I had one in hand. With most common Thamnophiines, Coluber constrictor, and a few species of Lampropeltis, I can tell with surprisingly good accuracy.

As far as sexing, neither are usually dangerous, but both can be. Unless you really need to know because you intend to breed some of your stock, you really shouldn't bother.

__________________

is that a rat snake?

__________________

for those snake guys out there:

i know the answer is deeper in the thread but im lazy, so here goes.

every 5th or 7th day do you feed? or for that matter, how many days do you wairt for a feed?

__________________

Zion, it's a corn snake.

FF, I've always fed all my snakes once a week. They probably go longer than that in the wild sometimes and do just fine..no reason to explore that though. The weekly feeding is assuming the use of appropriately sized food...if I only had smaller food, ie last time I fed the snake I still own...I fed twice the normal amount because they were smaller. Try to keep the food item around the same size as the thickest part of the snake. Width-wise of course. I've fed larger before, which is ok if you don't push your luck...it took a little while longer to digest is all.




It's not so much that I intended to breed..because I couldn't manage something like that with my schedule..I more would like to know just for my own knowledge (and to stop calling it it), also so if I have to sell it.

For the record, corn snakes are a type of rat snake.

__________________

Did I mention that my females dumped eggs on me in early April? 5 from one, 6 from the other. I don't think most of the first 5 will make it, but we'll see.

__________________

congrats!

__________________

A different subspecies I guess?

Congrats on the eggs! What kind of snakes?

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_7839s.jpg
Snake.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/IMG_7840s.jpg
Enclosure. It loves that cork bark tube.


edit...Chris, what kind of snakes do you use that hook you bought on? I think I've asked you what all you have, but I can't remember.

No, a different species. Rat snakes, historically, were all the snakes in the genus Elaphe. Recently, all remaining North American rat snakes were assigned to the resurrected genus Pantherophis. Corn snakes (also known historically as the "red rat snake") are Pantherophis guttatus. Stop reading here if relationships between species bores the shit out of you.

There have been some even more recent changes, too; they aren't especially complicated, but could be overwhelming to learn all at once. Specifically, the gopher, pine, and bullsnakes (genus = Pituophis) were recently found to be rooted within the rat snake complex, which in effect makes them rat snakes. Since the name Pituophis pre-dates the name Pantherophis, this WOULD mean that all rat snakes would have to be moved to the genus Pituophis. Collins et al. propose a different sytem; instead of consolidating the genera Pituophis with Pantherophis, partition the genera more deeply so that we can retain both historically significant names.

As a result, we are left with 4 genera instead of 1;

1. Pituophis - the gopher/pine snakes. Five species; gopher snake, pine snake, Louisiana pine snake, Mexican bullsnake, Central American gopher snake. Traditionally separated from the closely related rat snakes into their own genera, Pituophis.

2. Scotophis - the rat snakes. Four species; eastern rat snake, midland rat snake, western rat snake, and Baird's rat snake. Traditionally placed in the genus Elaphe or, more recently, Pantherophis.

3. Pantherophis - the corn snakes. Three species; corn snake, Slowisnki's corn snakes, and Great Plains rat snake. Traditionally placed in the genus Elaphe or, more recently, Pantherophis.

4. Mintonius - the fox snakes. Two species; eastern fox snake and western fox snake. These are sort of intermediate between the gopher/bull/pine snakes and the rest of the complex. Traditionally placed in the genus Elaphe or, more recently, Pantherophis.

Realistically, these four genera are closely related enough to be condensed into one genera, but in order to maintain the uniqueness of their relationships with each other and to maintain historically significant names, the partition may be useful. Until one or the other really gains a strong foothold over the other among biologists and in science media, I (and most others) will continue to refer to the bull/pine/gopher snakes as Pituophis and the rest of the snakes as Pantherophis.

__________________

Nice pics. My new hook is an outdoor hook; it's built for pinning down wild snakes in order to catch them and also for flipping over boards, logs, rocks, etc. Most hooks are indoor hooks; built for easy, stress free lifting of fat ass pets like my ball pythons and similar snakes. I have a crappy, worn down collapsible hook (that doesn't really collapse anymore) that is designed for lifting heavy bodied snakes.

Indoor sticks usually have the U-shaped hook; outdoor sticks are usually a V or an L shape. My new hook is the stump ripper, made by FurMont.

__________________

Thanks for the explaination. I didn't even realize corn snakes weren't Elaphe guttata guttata anymore. That's like one of my old spiders...it was Grammostola aureostriata for a LONG time, now it's G. pulchripes. It's hard to adjust to the change since it's been the old name for so long.

That's cool about the hook, I didn't really think about flipping rocks and whatnot. It's been a while since I've been out on a hike trying to find wildlife.

my corn got me real good last night.

i had him out and my roomies cat got up on the counter and sniffed him (shes uber curious) and my snake sunk his teeth in my left ring finger on the right side. didn't hurt (small snake, small ass teeth). took like 5 mins to get him off haha. I just hope i didn't hurt a tooth when i uncoiled him off my finger (tried to constrict it). other then that i dunno if i should be worried about aggresion either.



ps his feeding day is tomorrow, so he could be snack-ish.


OH, and does anyone here know we’re a good place to get phoenix worms online for Canada?

__________________

I hope you have better luck with your eggs than I had with mine. By the time the pet store opened for me to find out what to do they had started to shrivel. I had no idea that a green snakes needed to have damp for her eggs. That was a bummer.

Also a bummer was reading on a gardening forum that someone found a corn snake a few feet long and instead of relocating it they killed it and they got many cudos for doing it. I stuck up for the snake. The mentality of some people just blows my mind.

__________________

Meh, stupid people are everywhere. I only bother with the ones that can actually learn. Most are too stupid or stubborn to waste their time on. Most reptile eggs generally need to be in a moist (and NOT wet; too wet is worse than too dry) environment to hatch.

Speaking of eggs, my first batch are starting to hatch. One is already poking his stupid little head out, but the others haven't even been sliced open yet. I'll expect the rest of that batch to have sliced their eggs to ribbons by Tuesday afternoon.

Next batch should hatch next weekend or sometime thereabout.

__________________

Any way you can get some pictures of the process?

__________________

I'm gonna try. It's kind of touch and go, and I'll be too busy over the next few days to physically sit near the eggs and wait for action, which I'd like to do.

__________________

Well I'm getting back in the game here...just ordered two badass tarantulas! They should get here on Thursday.

Where'd you get them from, Graf? The site you referred me to a year or two back now is down, or was last time I checked. They had a shiton of awesome spiders that I really wanted. What kind did you get? You better fucking tell me everything I just asked because you know that I know that I can kick your ass, you know. You may be all "OOh I'm in the Navy! I'm in shape and have been taught how to kill" but I can throw a real hadouken. Really. Actually, my dad was in the Navy. I like to wear his uniform when I'm on boats and tell people I'm in the Black Ops.

__________________

I bought them from an individual selling them in the For Sale/Trade section on arachnoboards. Which site did I tell you about? Southern Spider Works? Their site still works.

Arachnoboards: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/index.php
SSS: http://www.southernspiderworks.com/InvenList.aspx

I got two spiders, one is Poecilotheria metallica http://www.thespidershop.co.uk/inse...talica_Main.jpg

and Xenesthis immanis
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/gal...hp?imageid=6026

Last but not least, the Navy word for "Black Ops" is SEALs.

Them spiders be beauts, graf. I remember looking at the first one awhile ago and considering it (over the Goliath).

I don't remember the website, but I'll dig it up later.

I know, but BLACK OPS just sounds so fucking.. black metal.

__________________

sounds like chicken and midnight basketball to me

__________________

They (P met) are expensive as hell! I got a good deal on mine, but I saw someone selling a female for 650! Not only that, someone bought it after only a few days. I could get an exhaust for my bike for that much! Then again, it was a female... I paid 200 for mine, which includes overnight shipping, but the total was 255 with the X immanis, which balances things out a bit...55 for an Xi is a great price! I used to have an X. sp. "white" which was determined to be a different species but not yet given an official species name. I forget how much that cost, but it was well over 55.

Damn shipmate! Officer pay must have gotten really good. P Met looks like it's paint scheme could have been designed in a Japanesse pro street racing chop shop.

Lol, Black ops. Looks like muddy water, taste like turpentine, Ooh yah, mid watch coffee!

BTW: I got 2 Chilli Rose spiders now ( in seperate tanks of course ). Both are different in behavior I have found. I never realized they could be so personable.

__________________

Nice bump, peeps. My collection has expanded quite a bit.

I currently have 8 adult ball pythons (Python regius); 3 are breeders, 2 are the offspring of Ka and Caesar ('06), and 3 are the offspring of Ka and Precious ('07). I also have 4 that I hatched last month. I'm going to get rid of those about a month or two after I get them feeding.

Recent arrivals include...

1.1 albino '10 ball pythons
1.1 juvenile Western fox snakes (Pantherophis [Mintonius] vulpinus)
1.1 '09 Kenyan sand boas (Gongylophis colubrinus)
0.1 California kingsnake (Lampropeltis californiae)
1.1 '10 Mole kingsnakes (Lampropeltis calligaster rhombomaculata)
0.0.1 '09 Jungle carpet python (Morelia spilota cheynei)
0.0.1 '10 Amazon tree boa (Corallus hortulanus)

I'm also holding two wild-caught adult Eastern milk snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum), one of which is a small male I'll probably hang onto, the other is a large female that belongs to someone else. The female laid 8 eggs on the 4 July which started to hatch the day before yesterday. 5 are already out of their eggs, the others should be out between today and tomorrow.

I'm also hanging onto a wild-caught yearling milk snake that my aunt (of all people) managed to catch in her backyard. Since it's eating, I'll probably hang onto it. I think I'd like to breed Eastern milks in the future. Not many herpetoculturists work with those, but I can't figure out why.

__________________

Chris, how long does it take for a snake to hatch? How different for a lizard? I actually found some Blue-belly Lizard eggs (Sceloporus occidentalis) about a month ago in my backyard (they're rampant here), but they never hatched.

I also found a very, very small baby Alligator Lizard (E. m. multicarinata, I believe) in my room yesterday. I used to catch those fuckers all the time when I was little and I used to have extreme guilt when their tales would fall off.

__________________

I'm glad you threw in the technical name; my lizard knowledge is strongly lacking, and while I know what a western fence lizard is, had no fucking idea what a blue-bellied lizard was. Turns out the name you used is actually more common where you live than the more "standard" common name I'm used to.

I wouldn't worry too much about the eggs; the sources I checked both have standard incubation time at around 60 days for S. occidentalis. I'm curious, though; did you leave them where you found them and check up on them now and then, or did you move them? Either way is fine, I'm just curious. If you moved them I'd have some advice to give you vis a vis hatching them on your own in, say, a rubbermaid or sterilite shoe box or some tupperware.

Generally, this is a tough question because there is no cut-and-dry, always-right answer. Incubation time for snakes (and reptiles in general) vary both from species to species and from individual to individual. Environmental conditions further complicate the issue; eggs hatch the quickest when all conditions are 100% perfect. Eggs also hatch quicker at temps at the top range of acceptability (e.g. ball python eggs hatch more quickly kept at 89F than they do at 81F, though both are acceptable; most go toward the medium, around 85 or 86 to be on the safe side).

It's better to look online and find a "range". Even that's not always 100%; I only hatched out two clutches this year. One was a ball python clutch, the other was a clutch of MA native eastern milk snakes. Average ball python incubation time is 52-60 days; my eggs took 84 days to hatch. Most people would have cut their eggs open or thrown them out at that point.

Average Eastern milk snake incubation time is 6-10 weeks; mine hatched in about 5 weeks. Not too far off, but still illustrates the point well enough, I think.

As far as tails falling off, I always felt the same guilt when I was kid; we don't have any lizards in MA, but have a lot of salamanders, and many do the tail-dropping bit. I have no idea why I felt guilty, but I do. Some of our native snakes drop their tail tips, too, but unlike salamanders and lizards, never quite grow them back. For that reason, I feel more guilty when I make a black racer or Eastern ribbon snake lose their tail tips. Now they can't use that trick to confuse a REAL predator!

I always wanted to catch lizards when I was a kid, though. I finally got to last March when I spend 8 days in Tampa. I caught about 8 of them; green anoles, brown anoles, ground skinks, and one beautiful Southeastern five-lined skink. I'd know my lizards so much better if I had grown up down there. As a kid, I eventually lost interest since I couldn't catch and study them myself. The only lizard that dropped its tail on me was a brown anole that I actually failed to catch.

__________________

Man, I am such a fucking nerd.

__________________

Hahaha, yeah, well, at least you're into something awesome that deals with life and science and not WoW.



Yeah, I know its got two or three other names across the states. I'd like to say my knowledge of lizards is vast, but it isn't. I owe my knowledge of its technical name to google.

I used to have a Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) when I was a kid and that thing was my prized possesion. Probably not a good reptile to get your kid as they're mean little bastards, but they're incredibly beautiful. If you've never heard the sound they make, their "barking", you can here. Its really bizarre. They also shit uncontrollably as a last resort defense mechanism.

Pictures of the Tokay: http://www.grumpygecko.com/wp-conte...okay_geckob.jpg, http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SqhhJb_P3...blue+lizard.jpg



I left them as I was too afraid to mess with them. I would check on them every day or so, and then after a week or two they were gone. I'm assuming the gardener got 'em as there were no remains. Next time I see some I'll let you know and get your advice. I can't walk outside to my car without seeing 2 or 3 lizards scattering.



Interesting. Sounds like they work pretty much like any other egg. For some reason I thought it'd be different.

When you hatch your guys, do you just let them crawl out them selves or do you aid in the process? How long does it take for a Ball Python to work its way out of its shell?



I think the guilt is pretty naturally for any non-psychopath as you feel as if you cruelly tore off a piece of an animal, despite it being on the contrary. It also just looks like it'd hurt and its flopping around is kind of unsettling. I didn't know some snakes did that also.

I have so many memories, laying down on the grass or hot concrete trying to sneak up behind one and nab it. I really wish I had known about the lizard noose technique instead of the "kung-fu grab" I had to master.

__________________

A lot of the lizards they sell are soooo not for beginners. In the long run, a $50 snake will be much less expensive than a $5 lizard. They are more fragile, on average, than snakes. They require more precise environmental stimuli, most annoyingly light bulbs that emit UV rays; these run about $10 per bulb. My snakes, on the other hand, only require heat from their light bulbs, and so a standard $0.50 90 watt is more than efficient. I'm actually keeping a green anole right now; pain in the ass.


Cute gecko.


As long as it cuts its own egg open, it can do the rest on its own. I only grow concerned if, after all the snakes have cut and then emerged from their eggs, there is one who still hasn't even sliced its egg open yet. The snakes generally fully emerge from their eggs anywhere from a few hours to 3 days after originally slicing their eggs open.


Fuck, the kung-fu grab worked for me in FL. I wish I'd caught half as many snakes as I did lizards while down there.

__________________

That spider is insane looking! Are you going to name it Lars? lolz Metallica.

__________________

Yea, they are all different. Even G rosea, which are supposed to be docile, can be pretty temperamental.

BassB, ha I'm pretty sure it was described as a species before the band was around. I usually don't name any of them though.

1. That spider is gorgeous.
2. It was probably named 100 years before the band, but taxonomists have named animals after bands, movies, painters, politicians, and fucking cartoon characters before. There is/was a lizard named after Darth Vader by Australian scientists.

__________________

What? Darthvadeis fuckuameripigus? I could just see that one on here.

__________________

Haha I hadn't heard of that one, then again I'm not really up on lizards.

Whoever describes the species can name it whatever the hell they want provided their work is accepted. Until someone finds something wrong with it, it will stay that way.

Resurrect! The dead walks! Anyhows.

I just found this little piece of trivia, and thought it might be fun to see if any of the reptile knowing people are still around here.
http://www.birderslounge.com/2010/02/snake-knot/

I don't know very much at all about snakes, but I do know that they have spines and ribs. Wouldn't a move like this require 'em to crack those in multiple places? Is this just some joke picture, constructed after the animal died, or does this happen for real?

__________________

The snake in the pictures is misidentified as a plainbelly water snake (Nerodia erythrogaster), it's actually a rough earth snake (Virginia striatula).

Onto the question; yeah, snakes can tie themselves into knots, although they usually don't. Underneath the picture, one person comments that they had observed a snake tie itself into a knot to prevent itself from being swallowed by a coral snake. I've never seen this behavior, but I'd read about it and believe it to be credible. I have personally witnessed wild ringneck snakes (Diadophis punctatus) and brown snakes (Storeria dekayi) tie themselves into knots as they writhe around and smear themselves with musk as a self-defense mechanism. I believe this behavior is probably common among small snakes when they encounter something they perceive to be a threat or predator. In this case, it's entirely possible that the ruse succeeded in unnerving a predator, but the snake had already been dealt a lethal blow.

I have also witnessed captive snakes tie themselves into knots to create friction to aid in shedding of skin on occasion. As a young kid, I would occasionally tie my own snakes into knots and marvel at the ease with which they untied themselves simply by gliding through the knots as if they weren't even there. Obviously I wouldn't do that now, as it could definitely hurt the snake to force it into an unnatural position, but they don't seem to have much of a problem forcing themselves into that position when they find it necessary.

__________________

Hm. Well, each day something new.

__________________

Could it possibly be how humans got the idea to tie knots was from snakes?

__________________

In the same way you learnt how to make sexitimes by watching Deliverance? Yes. Yes it is.

I'd hate to think it was the other way around.

__________________

Paddy, maybe you did. Or maybe you should.

Amadeus, you do have a point there.

__________________

I didn't learn about sex from Deliverance, but the guy who broke me in did.

Well, unless it's an April Fool's joke, the greatest Arachnid forum on the web shut down today or a couple days ago. I think it's a joke though... I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

In other news, my X immanis molted while I was out of town. The old skin was to messed up for me to be able to tell if it's a female or male.

This might sound dumb, but can it be rehydrated somehow so you can tell? I don't know how you'd figure out if it was male or female unless you're looking for little spidey weeters, but just thought I'd throw it out there. Not the spidey weeter, but the idea.

__________________

Yea, I sprayed it with some water to soften it up, but the abdomen was stuck together and I tore it a bit too much while trying to open it.

That website is still going, they were just pulling an April Fool's Day joke.

I was too fucking lazy to do an April Fool's here this year. I'm getting old. Fuck.

__________________

Chris, is all of your knowledge about fauna and natural history self-taught or have you taken formal courses and the like? Whatever the case may be you can consider me dually impressed. You're a walking encyclopaedia, which I believe is some sort of sexual proclivity for first edition hardbacks.

The vast majority of reptile/amphibian stuff is self-taught/learned, but I'm a bio major and have had a fair amount of formal biology classes. None of those, however, focused on my intended field of work. There are very few universities in New England with formal herpetology classes. The only two that I know for sure are Harvard and UMass Amherst.

I have fuck all chance of affording Harvard, so that's out of the question. UMass Amherst is more affordable (I'm going to UMass Dartmouth right now), but it's way on the other side of the state and would make little sense to go there.

Realistically, I'll never have any type of formal herpetology class until I move out of state to earn more advanced degrees.

__________________

Same goes for Arachnids..I learned everything I know by reading books, reading/posting on forums and observing them. I never took any bio classes in college though..I was an art major. Looking back, I wish I did. I didn't really start getting into that stuff until my last year of school though.

I've always been amazed by the number of kids I meet at school who really aren't sure what they want to do. I mean kids with no majors AND kids with majors. Why the fuck would you major in something difficult like bio or engineering when you have no idea what you want to do with that degree?

I've basically known what I've wanted to do since I was about 9 or 10 years old. I mean, I had other things I was interested in as well, but I always knew I was destined for biology.

__________________

I was one of those people. I chose graphic design because I was really into doing graffiti and wasn't sure what else to major in. I figured, if I could do graffiti, I could design logos no problem. The GD market is very over saturated, so you typically wind up working some shitty job until you can make a name for yourself or just get lucky. Still love graf, just haven't messed around with it nearly as much lately.

After I started learning about spiders more and more, I started taking more interest in things that were beyond the hobby level. Ie characteristics that distinguished a species from another species within a genus. Spiders are really cool in that regard because they shed their exoskeleton, complete with linings of certain organs. You can see a lot under a magnifying lens or microscope that you'd never know was there.

My grandson will be here for 10 days and I found my boys' old microscope in the attic. Maybe I can get some bug and spider parts from deceased creatures in the cellar to look at. Heck, I'm curious about those now. He's 12 so it might spark another interest and get me more cool grandma points.

I'm in my 50's and still don't know what I want to be so I can understand how others have that problem. I envy the ones like you, Chris, that know exactly what they want to do, but it's a good type of envy.

xg', I've a couple friends that were into graphic design. One did building design all over the world and the other has a sign business. Both did really well at them, but the building designer is now a teacher of sorts, rock climbing instructor, and has his own recording business.

Is it true that spiders prefer places where there's air movement? My basement has lots of webs, but my attic is practically void of them.

__________________

No, they aren't a big fan of air movement. They have 8 eyes but can't see very well at all. Jumpers can see better than other spiders. They rely on their sense of touch. Their bodies are covered in bristles (give them a "hairy" look) that have nerves at their bases. If there is wind, it's sensory overload. That's why spiders hate it if you blow on them.

I'd imagine any basement preference would have much more to do with moisture and prey abundance. I rarely see spiders in attics myself, but my basement (and all unfinished basements I've ever been in) are fucking full of them, especially Pholcus.

__________________

Mine is definitely unfinished. Cracked window, dripping water through the bricks, dirt floored fruit cellar... picture a haunted looking cellar and that's mine.

__________________

Sounds like a great place to find spiders. They typically enjoy humidity..some more than others. Some live in very dry regions too though. Hell some spend most of their time in and on water.

I'm not sure if I ever posted a list of what I keep, so I will now.

Ball pythons (Python regius)
1.2 ?? large adult ball pythons (breeding)
0.0.3 '07 ball pythons (smaller adults; non-breeding siblings)
0.0.1 '10 ball python
1.2 '10 albino ball pythons

Carpet pythons (Morelia spilota)
0.0.1 '09 jungle carpet python (M. s. cheynei)
0.0.1 '10 coastal x diamond python (M. s. mcdowellii x M. s. spilota)

Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis)
0.0.1 ?? sub-adult California kingsnake (L. californiae) - striped and hypomelanistic
0.0.1 '09 eastern milk snake (L. triangulum triangulum)
0.2 '10 mole kingsnakes (L. calligaster rhombomaculata)

Other snakes
1.1 ?? sub-adult western fox snakes (Pantherophis [Mintonius] vulpinus)

__________________

We demand pictures!

I'm down to these:

0.0.1 Xenesthis immanis
0.0.1 Poecilotheria metallica

No good pictures of either of them yet really. Might take them out of their tanks to get some. I made the set ups they're in and they look pretty good..they're just a bit small to be able to take good pics. Not to mention the spiders always hide when I open them up. Might just have to open the lids and sit there and wait.

Oh, I forgot a couple.

1.1 '09 Kenyan Sand Boas (Gongylophis colubrinus)

I don't have any pics ready, but most of the snakes are out for feeding so I can get some over the course of the weekend.

__________________

I took a couple of pics today in accordance with anyone bored enough to take a look.

Western fox snake male (female in background, hanging around the hide box)
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/3896/dscf1901a.jpg
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/7359/dscf1904b.jpg

Went for a 10.5 mile walk yesterday and found one black racer, so I'll throw a couple of those shots in, too.
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9624/dscf1869a.jpg
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/1821/dscf1873a.jpg

__________________

That black racer is gorgeous. You attempt to catch it? Or are they venomous?

__________________

Nonvenomous and I caught it. I caught two more today and whiffed on three others. Today's fare was harder, though; four of the five were out in the open and saw me before I saw them, meaning I had to chase them down. The other was wrapped nice and easy under an old tire. Like the one under the carpet from Tuesday, that one was also very easy to catch.

__________________

Aha, you had a snake under your carpet? I'm assuming he was an escapee or something.

House Centipedes season. I swear they get bigger and more unsettling looking every year.

__________________

No, no, the snake pictures above was the one found under a carpet. I don't live anywhere near where one would find interesting animals.

Not many house centipedes in my new house. I've seen one since we moved here in June of '09. It was dead and in the basement, so it didn't really bother me much. I'm actually worried that I've tempted fate and 17 will just start dashing from within the walls.

__________________

Crack heads are pretty interesting specimens. You should try and keep one, they're pretty fun. Inexpensive, too! I wish I had snakes around my neighborhood. I never really got to try and catch any as a kid as we just have the previously mentioned lizards. My mother's parents live in Kansas out in the middle of absolute nowhere (seriously - picture the house in the move Signs and thats 100% accurate) and that was always really fun as they had snakes, frogs, lizards, large grasshoppers, and giant HORRIFYING prehistoric locus.

A friend of mine and his wife just moved back to California and they had never seen a house centipede before and his wife shat a fucking brick when she saw one. I had to convince her that she didn't need to fumigate her house and despite their appearance, they're benevolent and eat spiders.

__________________

I never kept one, but had plenty of chances to observe them and their behavior in their natural environs. Why, just a week ago, I was out on a long hike into the woods and came across 7 or 8 vacant squat sites. One was probably still being used, as it still contained a mattress, several bags of clothing, a tarp, a collapsed tent, a tube of aluminum foil, and several soda bottles capped off with aluminum foil with little holes poked in it. No glass tube sticking out, though. =(


Certain counties in Kansas are renowned by snake hunters as having some of the best sites in the entire country. I intend to check it out someday for myself.

That's what I try to tell myself, too, but their harmlessness doesn't make them any less terrifying. It should, but it doesn't.

__________________

Well, my 12 year old grandson went into the basement with me and I showed him the fruit cellar. He walked in and got a face full of cobweb. I seriously didn't see any or I'd have brushed them away. I laughed my ass off though. I don't think any spiders were harmed in the incident, but I bet they ran away fast.

__________________

Please GOD don't let that be a euphemism.