reassurance needed

[vincent winyard]

hi all i need some reassurance. for the first time in a very long time I've finally seen my citharischius crawshayi almost right out in the open although it was quite brief it was great to see her. she obviously decided to have a clean out in her burrow discarding a molt in the process that's how i managed to sex her. that's the first molt ive been able to get hold of. anyway as she turned round i noticed one of her back legs was bent at the bottom i would say the first quarter of the leg. it looks like a capital letter L. she's eating well and must have used it to dig out the burrow. all i want to know is will she be ok in the long term and will the leg right its self when she next molts thanks everyone.

[Nicolas Charrière]

Hello Vincent.

I can imagine that it's not easy to provide a picture of such a secretive borrower (it would have helped)!!! According to your description, it could be two things:

- The back legs of P muticus (new name) are specially thick and bent (for burrowing purposes). What you have seen might be absolutely normal for this sp.

- If the leg is wounded, either she'll get rid of it herself or will keep it like that until next molt. By this molt, everything should be ok and healed. There are in my opinion very few chances that it could cause a molting problem with this leg.

Then, I think you don't have to worry: in both cases, she should be fine!

It's always a stunning sight when such burrowing sp. appears outside their hole!

[vincent winyard]

hi nicolas thanks for getting back to me. your so right trying to get a photo of the leg is almost impossible as she's gone right back in her burrow and i don't want to start disturbing her just for a photo. i did manage to get a good look and it don't look wounded just this bend inwards seems to be the problem or not as the case may be. i'll just leave her alone and obviously keep a close eye on her to make sure she's ok. many thanks again nicolas for your help and reassurance much appreciated.