H. villosella Communal Notes

Well I've come to realize, I've never made a post about my H. villosella communal project. I started this project on 5/20/09 and started with 4 slings. Here are the notes I've taken so far...


5/20 received the 4 H. villosella slings and they are MICRO. They are maybe 1/4". All slings are from the same sac, I put them into their vial, and added in some prekilled cricket for them to feed on.

5/21 All 4 slings made the first night, it doesn't appear that they have eaten anything.

5/23 Today I found two slings in a tube web together. The other sling has made it's own tube web on the other side of the vial. Fourth sling roaming around. One of the slings looks darker today then the other two, maybe it's getting ready to molt?

5/24 Tried feeding mealworms instead of crickets, but no one is eating.

5/25 Spotted three slings today, two of them together, and one on it's own.

5/28 Today I realized that one of the slings had molted. It grew a tiny amount, but is still very tiny and hard to see them with all their webbing. I'll try feeding them again in a couple days.

5/29 Decided to go ahead and feed, in case someone got hungry and they don't munch any freshly molted, or the freshly molted don't eat those in premolt. The sling which molted fed.

5/29(evening) Found another sling had molted, and saw all 4 slings alive!!!. Added in a prekilled cricket, and one of the other slings looks ready to molt any time now.

5/31 All slings have molted, one yesterday, and one very early this morning. One of the slings is bigger then the others, All slings are more active now and I see them daily out of the tube webs.

6/1 Noticed that one sling is missing legs I and II on it's right side. Must have had problems molting. Should come back next molt with no problems.

6/10 All four slings still alive, one appears to be molting.

6/11 found the sling that appeared to be molting, suck in the molt and dead. Now down to three slings.

6/22 two of the three remaining slings have molted two more times, starting to see adult colors.

6/30 All three slings alive, two have molted today and are now .5" One more to go and should be in a couple days. Two seem to always molt at the same time, and the other a few days later, always under a week.

7/7 haven't seen all three slings in a few days now. Always just two of them hanging out. I think the third one may have died in the molt. I can't see very well due to all the webbing, but I think I see it in the webbing and dirt, not sure though, hopefully it's locked up getting ready to molt. I'll investigate with tweezers in a couple days.


So far everything seems to be going well, other then the one, maybe two slings who have died in the molt, other two seem to be doing really well and feed well also.