Eremobates hodai

This page will be for recording my experience with attempting to hatch eggs from a species of windscorpion I've found here in Idaho, Eremobates hodai. I found a female of this species on 6/23/20, and housed her in a 16 deli cup with a couple inches of clay based substrate to dig into, (which I had dug up from where I found her). Unfortunately the substrate was apparently too compacted for her to dig comfortably, I should have used a sand based substrate instead.

I fed her an earwig the night of her capture, and fed her a mealworm a couple days afterwards. Around that time I noticed eggs growing within her abdomen, and they became more and more obvious as the days went on. She laid her eggs the night of 6/27/20, inside a small cardboard tube I had given her to hide in, as she still had not constructed a burrow, (again, my fault for not giving her a proper substrate, but I was never actually planning on breeding her, and she didn't look gravid at all until days after her capture). I thought she had died, as she was on her back with the mass of eggs set on top of her, but an hour later I went back to check and she was wandering the enclosure. At this point I decided to release her, as I didn't really want her to eat the eggs, which some people have reported theirs doing.

I am keeping the eggs in a small deli cup with more of that clay based substrate at the bottom, which I have settled the cardboard tube in, (I didn't want to move the eggs themselves, so I left them in the cardboard tube). There are cotton springtails in there for cleanup, and I'm keeping the enclosure semi-humid and warm.
According to a friend who has experience hatching Solifugids, warm temps and low humidity (50-60% works apparently) are best for eggs. Hatchlings like it much the same, but with high ventilation, and will take pre-killed prey. He suggests feeding only when their abdomens are 2x the length of the head, as overfeeding supposedly kills them.

The species name "hodai" is an acronym for Idaho it seems, considering the type locality is from Idaho, this is unsurprising. This species has been recorded from Ada County, so this is almost certainly what I have, there are only three other Solifugid species known from Idaho, and E.hodai is the only Eremobates here.











I'll do my best to hatch and rear this species, however it's worth noting that no ones seems to have had much luck getting captive hatched Solifugids past the second instar... Whether this is due to unique dietary needs or airflow levels, or something else, no one knows. I'll try my best, and we'll see what happens!

I'll keep this page updated as I go, wish me luck!



7/22/20, a few of the eggs began... opening up? Didn't really look like proper hatching, they just kinda unfurled, started developing legs, I'm not too familiar with arachnids but I think this is the stage tarantula breeders call "eggs with legs", or EWLs for short:




The next day, 7/23, all of the EWLs have fully developed/hatched into protonymphs, which are technically the first instars. They don't move a whole lot and don't feed either, just kinda sit there until they molt into the second instar, which is when they'll start eating.





So far so good, just gotta get them to L2 and then hopefully to L3, which is what no one seems to be able to do consistently yet. I'll keep y'all updated!



7/31/20: They've started molting into the mobile L2s now! 😁 A few of them strangely look a bit larger than each other, but I feel like they should have all hatched out the same size, it's not like certain individuals have eaten more than others or anything, they've not eaten at all! That's gonna change in this instar, as now they are fully developed little windscorpions, and will start moving around and eating! 😄

I must be careful not to overfeed them at this point, and they also supposedly need a lot of ventilation at this stage, so a couple days ago I added a whole bunch more ventilation to the enclosure. Once they've all hatched and settled a bit, I'll be offering them pre-killed Eleodes larvae. Supposedly they aren't cannibalistic at this stage, I really hope that's true! 🤞

Anyways, here are some pictures of them!

Well, this one's an L1, but a late stage one that will molt soon...

Here's an L2, looks pretty different right?








So now begins the difficult part, everyone's captive hatched US native Solifugids seem to die off at the L2 stage here, I don't actually know if anyone has ever reared any to L3, but if they did, it was probably only a very few individuals, and I haven't heard any rumors of of anyone getting their hatchlings to L4... So this is the first "wall" of rearing captive hatched Solifugids, if I can get a large number of these offspring to L3, I think I'll be golden! 😄



8/11/20: Well, things are kinda going south a bit, I've lost probably close to ten of them due to three main reasons:

1) I had them on a clay based substrate with coconut fiber covering one quarter of the enclosure, but whenever I'd water them the clay would turn to mud and they'd get stuck, despite my best efforts to free them, a couple ended up dying due to that. So I moved them to a substrate of sand instead, which has been working much better.

2) They suuuuuuuck at finding food, I've been offering them mealworm pieces, but unless you prod them into the dang food, they usually miss it... I have also offered large springtails, but I can't tell if they've been consuming them or not, they definitely go to town on the mealworm guts when they can find them though, so I just have to guide them towards food and offer more of it from now on to ensure everyone gets fed, as I've lost a few due to starvation...

3) I'm still keeping them communally, but I'm thinking this may have been a mistake, because apparently, despite what Orin's works say, L2s WILL cannibalize each other, a couple of my more hungry, starving immatures started eating the more lethargic, well fed ones... 😐 An issue I hope I've fixed by splitting the group into two and making sure every underfed individual has had it's face shoved into mealworm guts...


I really hope one big meal is enough to last them until the next molt, technically overfeeding is supposed to kill these things, but it's a less immediate danger right now than underfeeding, which has really taken it's toll on my L2s... The ones that have fed seem to be doing OK, they're more lethargic than the thinner, less full individuals, but I feel like that's to be expected.
That's it for this update, hopefully the next one is at least a little more positive.



8/20/20: Well, down to a single L2 now... 😞 Lost some more to cannibalism, the rest appear to have died of overfeeding. It's very hard to control the amount of food they eat, since I have no live prey small enough for them besides springtails, which they may or may not be able to catch... So I used crushed mealworm bits, which just gave them too much to feed on, and they gorged themselves, apparently to death. 😣

I may have also kept them too humid, the last one I have left is doing well so far being kept a bit drier than the others were kept, despite being quite plump after gorging itself on half a Conibius pupa.

Oh well, if I can get this last survivor to L3 I'd still be at least a little happy, but yeah any chance of breeding the offspring has completely gone out the window... So far this project has pretty much gone exactly how I expected it to, still doesn't feel any less crummy though.



8/31/20: Shortly after the last update, the last surviving L2 individual dug down into the sand in it's deli cup, where I had hoped it was going to molt. Today I decided to dig it up and see if it was still alive, and sadly found a tiny shriveled up dead body... So in short, I did not succeed in keeping any of my offspring alive to L3, dang...

Oh well, I gave it my best shot, and learned quite a bit about these interesting arachnids in the process. I do not think I'll be trying again with Eremobates anytime soon, would love to one day try keeping a Rhagodes species though, as apparently, those have actually been successfully bred in captivity... 🤔

Anyways, thanks for giving this a read, I'll leave this page up to serve as a potential source of information on what not to do for breeding US native species, like Eremobates hodai.


4 comments:

  1. Loving the updates and sending all the good vibes for windy success! :D

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    1. Thanks, I've got my fingers crossed, I'll be sure to keep the page updated on any progress being made! 😁

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  2. There's actually been some galeodes bred successfully in china (galeodes caspius), I'd imagine arabs and granti wouldn't be too dissimilar

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    1. Oh, very interesting! :D Did they rear hatchlings to maturity? If so, do you know how they managed to do so?

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