I paid for 10 crickets tonight and the lady gave me 15 or 18, it is a little hard to count them all. The little food items are scurrying willy nilly(~2-3 feet per minute). Helob was a little perturbed by the dropping of the food items and it took him approximately 3 seconds to grab the first meal. And then about 60 seconds to grab the second. 3 minutes later he was dining on the third food item. He had not quite finished the other two and had deposited them on a web circle. As he was munching on the third cricket, he picked up a second from the web and is now two-fisting crickets. I have not previously observed this and I submit it as further proof that tarantulas make awesome pets, as do most any carnivorous creatures. Either that, or I am not right in the head.
I think the cricket lady is hitting on me. Or Helob.
UPDATE: There were definitely 18 crickets upon food item insertion. Three are now confirmed to be currently undergoing digestion. If only Helob could grow to be as large as a small dog and be trained as well. I could have someone to watch TV with and blame the farts on my pet barking spider.
UPDATE: Part Deux As of 7:30 AM EST, there are only 13 crickets left unmunched in the terrarium. Seven of these are the smart variety and are hiding on top of the plastic hidey hole. The chopsticks will likely be needed in the next few days. Probably Saturday, when other scientists are expected to arrive from places west.
UPDATE: Part Tres At 9:38 PM 3/29/06, there are now only 11 crickets living with the devourer. All seven of the smart variety remain.
UPDATE: Part Quatre At 6:38 AM 3/30/06, there were only 9 crickets visible. Four were still on top of the half pipe and five were huddled in the corner furthest from Helob. Helob was crouching by the half pipe. I confess that this count may be inaccurate as I was extremely bleary eyed and exhausted.
UPDATE: Part Cinque There are only 8 observed living crickets as of 12:56 AM 03/31/06. That means Helob ate one today. I think he is truly the last remaining spawn of Ungoliant. Props to the person who can describe how that beast died!1!!! The person that isn't dandrobium, that is. Although, given the fact that one year ago, I out-Tolkienned dandrobium, he may not be able to answer that challenge.
6 comments:
Does he eat them or dissolve them outside of his stomach or what?
He spears them with his 3/4 inch long fangs and pokes them and manipulates them with his hands/feelers/front limbs. The fangs are similar to hypodermic needles, hollow and they work both ways. The enzymatic acid dissolves the crickets into goo and he sucks teh goo out. You can't see that, you just see him poking the crickets and rolling them around in his jaws.
That's awesome!
I still feel a bit badly for the crickets though.
You wouldn't if you had to endure what I did last fall. I thought Helob was just ignoring the food, but then I figured out that he couldn't get to it. The food items were all hanging out on top of this branch which Helob couldn't climb. And they chirped constantly. It drove me batty.
Only 3 of the new series of subjects is capable of chirping. None of them have yet, but that may be due to their understanding that there is a predator nearby. Helob can poke one limb up in their vicinity and freak them out, but he can't climb up to get them. It is funny watching the crickets run to the far side of the halfpipe when Helob pokes a leg up it.
Oh, that's awful!
I just love it though.
They are as the herds of wildebeests to the hungry lions or sheep swaying in the wolf breeze.
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