In this page you will find some informations about amblypygids, but mostly how to keep and raise them in captivity. It's basics care sheets, but if you want to know more about them, i wrote an article for a french magazine (Situla N°29) that you can find in an other page named "Global informations and care sheets" (http://jordancadiot.wixsite.com/jordancadiot/global-informations-and-care-sheets) from the "Amblypygi" part of my website. This article is updated progressively.

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Damon diadema is an amblypygi, an arachnid order different than spiders and scorpions (despite the fact they are called tailless whip scorpion or whip spider). They have a particular and unique morphology; they are nocturnal and lucifugous, and we say they are "carvernicolous". They don't have venom and are harmless to human.

 

- Terrarium :  Youngs can be housed in fruit flies pots, or in modified bottle of water. You can keep them in bigger boxes but the observation will be more complicated. 5,8L Braplast boxes (18*18*19cm) are very useful (if you place a mosquito net on the opening of course) and can house a Damon diadema for about two years, then it will be necessary to house them in bigger terrarium (i would advise 30*30*30cm). The "fitting" is simple and will always be the same no matter the size of the terrarium. Few centimeters of humid substrate, cork bark horizontally et vertically placed. The simplest is to put one bark vertically, and an other one on the top, horizontally. The most important is to leave enough space between the top and bottom for the molts.

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- Temperature : This specie is quite tolerant, to make it simple : not less than 15°C et not more than 28°C during a long time, keep them between 20°C and 26°C.

 

- Humidity : They appreciate and need humidity, mostly to molt. I always advise a good spray once a week or every two week (depending on the ventilation among other things) while you feed them, doing these both things in the same time will disturb them only once, which is better than twice, obviously.

- Feeding : They are not complicated, the only "rule" is to not give too big prey, they might chase them but not eat it entirely, so what will be left of the prey would stay on the humid substrate, which could easily bring mites.

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- Breeding : There is two ways to sex Damon diadema, one requires more patience but no handling, the other allow us to know faster who is what, but you'll probably need to manipulate.

 

The first one is the size of the pedipalps, on a mature male they exceed the elbow of the first pair of walking legs, not on females. The second is the genital operculum which is on the ventral face of the abdomen, it has a heart-shaped for males, and a trapeze-shaped for females. We can also notice small red hairs for the females.

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There is not much to do when we want to breed them, only put a mature couple together and observe if all goes well. If they are not ready to breed they will attack each other and you'll have to separate them of course, or one of them (if not both) will get armed, or might die.

I've never had any trouble with mine, there is often a courtship right after placing them together (they standing face to face et touching each other with their antenniform legs, they also can touch eachothers with their pedipalps. But if they beeing agressive with the pedipalps opens and kicking, you have to separate them) and a spermatophore the next day.

 

If the female fertilized herself you might see eggs under its abdomen about a month later. After the many successful breeding i had, i observed that the eggs development takes more or less five months (111 and 143 days). Babies are taking place on the abdomen during ten days more or less before molting again to reach the second instar, and then beeing independant.

 

You can keep the juveniles the same way as adults, you only need to adapt the size of the enclosure and the preys (i give fruitflies or small red runner).

 

 

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This is a weird animal but so much interesting, despite the fact they are nocturnal it's still possible to observe them hunting or molting, or only moving, and only that is fascinating as they are unique.

 

The breeding is really awesome, the courtship, spermatophores, eggs and the babies on the abdomen...

Plus, it's an easy animal to keep, and as they live a long time (around ten years apparently, maybe more, there's not enough back up yet in captivity to be able to give a more precise data) it adds something more in my opinion.

 

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me (by facebook for example).

 

Good care!

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