Do mature males burrow?

[Matthew Baines]

Do burrowing species mature males actually burrow? The reason i ask is that i have a female and mature male haplopelma species, the female has burrowed nicely in the corner, where as the male clings to the side of the tank or curls up in a corner. He has plenty of substrate too burrow in but he does wander loads when the lights are off, i am just intregued but not concerned .

[Oli Dodds]

Ive never seen any mature males ever burrowing!!
Just wandering about a lot.
Then again, I dont have MMs for very long as I breed them, then send them on lol.

[Colin D Wilson]

I've had mature males utilising the burrow it made before the ultimate moult, but have not had a MM dig out a burrow in a fresh tank, like Oli said, they're normally on their wanders with one thing in mind

[Matthew Baines]

Yeah he wanders lots , but not been able too introduce him too the female just yet to give her time too settle in, but am going too do it beginning of october then i know for sure she is settled . Dunno if he will survive the mating tho but you never know

[Oli Dodds]

Good luck with the mating anyhow matey, dont forget to take notes and pics and let us know how it goes!

[Matthew Baines]

I will . Its going too be the first time i have ever mated tarantula's so i want to make sure everything is perfect so i dont have any mess up's .

[Lisa Baines]

Pics and video are covered by yours truly! Hope they dont get camera shy!

[Ray Hale]

HI Matthew,

just be aware that mature male Haplopelmas dont last that long so mate it sooner rather than later. Ive lost count of the number of times someone had said to me they meant to mate it but it died.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Ray Hale

[Matthew Baines]

Thanks for that ray, He had a couple of really fat crickets last night which he has eaten, I dunno if that makes any difference too his length of life ? Just placed his tank next too the females tank and he has thrown himself on his back now , he is extremely defensive this morning for a change!!! Any hints or tips about transporting him across too her tank i think are going to be needed here !!!

[Phil Rea]

Just persuade him gently with a paintbrush or something like that. If he's unresponsive, what you can do is pick some of the female's web up from her enclosure on the brush, and let the male touch it. Sometimes that will start them off and alert them to the presence of a mate

[Matthew Baines]

Just persuade him gently with a paintbrush or something like that. If he's unresponsive, what you can do is pick some of the female's web up from her enclosure on the brush, and let the male touch it. Sometimes that will start them off and alert them to the presence of a mate

If i was too just put some of her webbing in his tank to stumble upon would that suffice? Plus he lost a leg a few weeks back would that hinder his chances of breeding? It was his left side IV leg. Will putting webbing in with him induce him too make a sperm web? Im not too keen on have too much contact with him because he is extremely defensive towards everything!

[Phil Rea]

If i was too just put some of her webbing in his tank to stumble upon would that suffice? Plus he lost a leg a few weeks back would that hinder his chances of breeding? It was his left side IV leg. Will putting webbing in with him induce him too make a sperm web? Im not too keen on have too much contact with him because he is extremely defensive towards everything!

What I do is pick some webbing up with the brush and 'paint' it round about the spider's front legs and palps. You could try putting some web in his tank, I guess. The fact that he's lost a leg shouldn't make a difference

Make sure that he goes into the female's enclosure and not the other way around, and be prepared to separate them. Also be prepared that if he mates with her and survives, he will most likely be making a hasty exit when proceedings are complete, so have something appropriate on hand to catch him. If he starts drumming his feet on the substrate when he's in the female's tank, then that's a good sign.

[Matthew Baines]

Thanks alot for that. I had too choose a aggressive species too breed for the first time but I always say if you throw yourself in at the deepest end it gets easier from there. Its definately going too be a fantastic learning experience. I have started a diary and am updating it everytime something happens (You never know i may just see about putting it in a future bts journal)I also have a resident camera woman in my mrs so we should get plenty of good pictures and hopefully some video. Should be a well documented event when it happens.

It seems too be a house of breeding at the moment too we currently have 2 gravid scorpio maurus (isreali gold scorpion), 2 gravid caraboctonus keyslingi , Possible gravid urophonius granulatus (pygmy wood scorpion), 9 chinese water dragon eggs and another clutch of eggs too be laid by the water dragons

[michaelmckinney]

I agree with Colin,

I have only seen a MM use the burrow that he had his ultimate moult in, and never saw a newly rehomed one, dig a fresh burrow. I once saw a MM P.Murinus on what can only be discribed as a moulting mat!!!! He ahd his fangs extended like he was going to moult, and he had mated 6 or 7 days previous to this, and had filled his palps on another sperm web, previous to that???? But unfortunately my m8s back door slammed and disturbed him, so he went back to prone from dorsal, so we will never know what was going to happen. And he was defo mature cause my female murinus laid a fertile sac which hatched really well, so a bit of a mystery there.

Michael.

[Matthew Baines]

I have heard about post ultimate moults for male tarantulas but whether they were successful i do not know!