Brachypelma Hamorii’s First Feeding At Home. Look At Dat Cute Lil’ Booty!!!!

Quick illustration of me turning into a fucking goliath birdeater tarantula shortly after snapping under the pressure of living in America

Arright so i saw something really cool in Texas, the kind of thing you read about but don’t expect to actually encounter

I flipped over a rock and found a tarantula sharing its burrow with a tiny narrowmouth toad

This is a symbiotic relationship where the tarantula provides protection and affordable housing, while the toad feeds on ants that could harm the tarantula or its eggs. Other small frogs, lizards etc. are just prey to tarantulas, but they instinctively recognize and welcome narrowmouth toads for their ant-eradication abilities.

Basically, tarantulas keep tiny toads in their home for the same reason humans domesticated cats. This sort of went viral as a piece of trivia a while back, but there’s not a lot of actual photos showing it.

This isn’t the only case of this I saw either. I saw two other burrows with toads in them, including a massive tarantula that had at least 4-5 toads, but they hopped deeper into the burrow before I could take pics.

Anyway here’s some better quality photos I took of both animals during the day. The toad is Gastrophryne olivacea and the tarantula is an Aphonopelma species (probably hentzi but their taxonomy is a clusterfuck)

Hey so what the FUUUUUUCK happened in this beetle’s evolution??? For that matter why didn’t I know about these if they’re a “common wood-boring pest???”

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep27364 Under “normal” circumstances, they don’t form adults and the larva simply clones new larvae that eat their way out of the “mother larva.” If exposed to extreme heat, they’ll pupate and turn into little beetles like their ancestors did, and the little beetles go through a whole elaborate courtship period where the females fight with each other over territory and try to mount males or each other (apparently the first time same-sex coupling was observed in a beetle), with both sexes having unique little dances to communicate with each other. If I’m reading correctly the male has a mating display while the female has like a little “rejection dance” I think? And then it doesn’t matter because all adults are sterile so the population just dies off.

Can i be completely honest?

I wasnt sure the display enclosures I built were the best choice. Even though i am pro enrichment and larger enclosures, i had my doubts that a ball python would use all that space.

The behavior im seeing is so awesome though. Like Khaleesi, who is 6-7 years old now, raised and bred entirely in a typical rack system for most of her life, is a very different snake. She would hide pretty much exclusively, even in my larger tubs. If you check the past posts- i believe i excitedly posted a photoset seeing her out for the first time ever a few months back. That alone was amazing to me. Now, my mind is blown. Youve seen the pictures, but im not sure you know how proud of her i am.

Look at that. Confidently chilling up top where the hotspot is about 95.

Part of me wasnt going to put her in a display. Not because ball pythons do poorly in large enclosures, but because i was certain she wouldnt use the space, whereas the animals i raised with enrichment would put it to better use. It sounds funny but i was scared i would find out animals treated like breeder would never take advantage of enrichment and thusly would not “need” it. That would make all of my efforts pointless.

Despite all that, I intuitively felt that she needed to be in the first completely finished display enclosure.

You can see, that was the right choice and she has expanded her behaviors.

I see her out and about, but shes also more confident. For example:

She started to periscope when the door was closed, and i was able to open the door and snap this picture without having her shirk away in fear or immediately seek a hiding spot to escape.

Watching her and the other females use their enclosures to perform different behaviors has encouraged me again.

And now, when i get responses like this:

I can smirk and laugh, because my animals are healthier.

Oh i also saw Asteria and Prometheus mating out in the open 🤷‍♀️

Goblincore:

-dirt

-nature

-moss

-bugs, spiders, and worms

-collecting useless stuff

-being comfy and not letting anyone judge you

Dragoncore:

-gold

-gems

-crystals

-silver

-metals

-lizards

-being lazy

Crowcore:

-dark colors

-anything remotely shiny

-screaming

-active and hyper

-sharing your shinies with your friends

Cottagecore:

-warm and cozy

-calming colors

-cookies and baked goods

-tea and hot chocolate

-anything made of wood

-FROGS!!

-fall

Farmcore:

-hay bails

-farm animals

-fields

-vegetables

-sunsets

-wheat

-little cats and big dogs

-fall and summer

Dirtcore:

-moss

-anything in nature

-flowers

-grass

-dirt and mud

-amphibious animals

-trees

-cool looking sticks

-wormwormwormworm

Vulture culture:

-bones

-fur

-magic

-herbs

-spices

-october

Meadowcore:

-flowers

-pastel

-fields and meadows

-baby animals

-butterflies

-spring

Honeycore:

-baked goods

-yellow

-bees?

-farms

-sunrises and sunsets

-summer

-honey, duh!

Grandmacore:

-cozy chair/sofa

-baked goods and other sweets

-cottages

-earthy colors

-nice smells

-cats!!

Naturecore:

-plants

-wild animals

-rivers

-rainbows

-flowers

-bugs

Forestcore:

-moss

-mushrooms

-dirt

-trees

-mud

-sticks

-deer

-bears

-racoons

-beetles

-dead leaves

Earthcore:

-nature

-oceans

-skys

-mountains

-waterfalls

-rainforests

-any animal

-plants

-clouds

Witchcore:

-magic

-lizards

-owls

-cats

-bats

-books

-skulls

-herbs and spices

-dark forests

Bogcore:

-swamps

-bogs

-seaweed

-green water

-frogspawn

-frogs and toads

-lilly pads and lillies

-algie

Mosscore:

-moss

-algie

-mushrooms

-green

-dirt

-mud

-bark

Fairycore:

-pastel

-butterflies

-flowers

-magic

-soft animals

-pink

-sparkly stuff

-spring

Techcore:

-gears

-cogs

-wires

-motherboards

-circut boards

-binary code

-cords

Futurecore:

-buldings

-technology

-robots

-cool cars

-screens

-cameras

-black

-decorative lights

Feel free to add more!!!

Cecropia moths, Hyalophora cecropia, + details Photos by Alexander Wild // Twitter

Gorgeous inveterate enclosures!

LICHENS

vor dem Harz photos