Abbott Ecology

  August 29, 2019 "Friend" escaped yesterday. He then apparently TERRIFIED my husband as he was moving things off the dining room table last night. Oops! So far we have no eggs from (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Friend is a male) him, so tomorrow when I'm able to observe them I'll introduce Suzie to Friend. He needs a proper name, though.  Update from later Aug 29th: BREAKING NEWS: We have nymphs! Two of the egg sacs are translucent, with a corresponding two nymphs. One egg is brown (likely dead) and the other one has remained green,  so I suspect that we will have a third nymph soon. They're huge in comparison to their eggs. The eggs are 3mm wide, and the length of the nymph's body is about 5mm. 

 This is getting out of hand…   Suzie has a friend now. I'll observe to see if it lays eggs. I cannot find information on how to tell the sex of a leaf footed bug, so if it doesn't lay eggs within a few days I'll introduce them and hope that they're nice to each other. Once I saved two crayfish from HEB and they fought to the death, so that's a very real possibility. I have hope for a better outcome and interesting observations (like fertilized eggs!) once they're together, assuming it's a male.

  This is my buddy Suzie and her eggs. There's not any information online about keeping a leaf footed bug alive. It's more about how to kill them. We will see how this goes. So far she's had a tomato and hasn't been interested in banana yet. I made her a habitat out of damp shredded paper and a cloth secured with a rubber band for air.

  Ok. Pinning is not my thing. I tried all summer and I officially hate it. I've exploded two more completely pinned spiders today trying to transfer them to my shadow box and I'm over it. It's catch or observe from here on out. No more losing legs or weird drying. No more primal screaming when I bend a leg the wrong way or my hand twitches and I rip off an antennae. No more guilt as the animal dies for me, or wondering if the spider in my jar might have eaten some of these dang flies. ' I found a leaf bug that I already wasn't sure about killing yet, mainly because it takes SO STINKING LONG TO PIN AND I HATE IT, but also because she laid eggs in the jar. I gave her a tomato and she's been sucking on it.  Leaf-footed bug I pinned the last two bugs that I had to and threw out the others (sorry tiny spider and other spider… I hate all your legs) and it turned out okay. I pinned a June bug and a little spindly flying guy from my Godson.  Common June Bug Cockroach E...