Closing of holes??

[dc]

I've read about them closing in their doorway, but my guy is up in the rocks. So do the have the ability to do webs or whatever (saliva). It was definately closed and since it goes straight up, I'm wondering.

 

[kalim]

web

web

not that i know of....you have a pic of that interesting setup you mention (or maybe describe it in more detail)? maybe they're just good in balancing rocks - LOL

 

[dc]

No, I'll have to try to take one tomorrow. It's a big chunk of LR. His cave is about a 1 1/2" up off the ground. The hole he comes out of is about as big around as he is. You can tell he's coming down maybe 1/2". Must be hollow inside as he can turn around in there. The hole looks like sand stuck in a cobweb when it's closed up.

 

[Gonodactylus]

What species are we talking about. Many spearers can mix mucus and sand to form a tube. This sounds like what you have. Burrowing smashers such as Odontodactylus don't seem to use mucus, they just fit the pieces together. They will sometimes include algae.

Roy

 

[kalim]

"they fit the pieces together"...

these critters constantly amaze me...too bad there aren't any eusocial stomatopods around....maybe then we could see constructions on a grand scale (sorta like the huge termite mounds in africa, but of course, better - LOL)

also, i believe it's a gonodactylid smasher.

 

[dc]

He's definately a smasher, also is colored much like the one in the bottle, and the Emerald shadows in the gallerie of photos. This picture is when I first got him from GregT in Fl.

His Meral spots look black with a white ring. The closest id I could come up with was Neogonodactylus oerstedii from everything I read. It wasn't algae tho, definately looked like a web of some type.

 

[kalim]

wow! them's big muscles! the raptorial appendages in your stomatopod looks really "buff" - :eek1:

 

[Gonodactylus]

The meral spots of N. oerstedii are purple with a whitle ring. More likely N. wennerae.

Roy

 

[kalim]

hey doc:

aren't the meral spots on wennerae white, or is that variable? i think she posted another pic of this elsewhere and it was some dark color surrounded by white.....could that dark color be a dark purple, or is g. oerstedi only purple to bright purple?

thanks.

 

[Gonodactylus]

I guess I didn't read this carefully.

There are only two stomatopods that I know of that have purple meral spots. G. smithii has spots that range from dark purple or maroon to light purple. N. oerstedii has spots from dakr purple to almost light grey (purple tint). No stomatopod that I have seen has a black center. The darkest I know of are the two mentioned above.

Sometimes people confuse the meral spot with the spots anterior and posterior to the large saddle center. In N. wennerae, there is a fairly large black spot anterior and posterior to the center white.

Roy

 

[dc]

Well he is pretty little, and was half way in the cave. They looked black to me. There was no mistake about the white ring tho.

 

[dc]

Here's one of the pictures Greg posted when he was giving it away.

 

[kalim]

as doc caldwell mentioned, N. oerstedii has dark purple spots with a white ring, so your critter is most likely that species.