E.c.croceater hatchling

[russ]

These guys are coming out after 84 days. I ended up with 4 out of 11 in this clutch, mom ate the rest before I moved these to a cup a week ago. Talk about tiny, good thing I have a springtail colony.

RUSS

(Message edited by jennewt on August 16, 2004)

 

[jennifer]

I assume that the scale is in centimeters, so they are about 2.5 cm long? Are those little nubs of undeveloped gills on the sides of the head? Really amazing! Good luck with them.

 

[nic]

awesome. totally awesome!

 

[nate]

Fantastic stuff Russ. Think you might just go ahead and remove the eggs from the mother the first time you see them then?

 

[travis]

I haven't wanted to disturb my croceator but I guess now could be the time. I better go check on her, I have my fingers crossed.She sure has been gravid for a long time.
Wish me luck,
Travis

 

[russ]

Yes the ruler is in mm/cm. I'm not sure about the nubs. Next season I'm going to pull a clutch from the mom right away and I'll do a series of pics as they develop.

Travis, if yours hasn't laid by now it probably won't until next season. I haven't determined if the ones that I didn't get eggs from retained them or ate them as soon as they were laid.

RUSS

 

[paris]

mom ate the eggs or the hatchlings? i wonder if the eggs will hatch w/o mom watching them?

jenni-i would guess those are the gill remnants-though i am suprised that they are not white. my arboreals had white ones despite the rest of the body being almost black with gold flecks- i sort of expected them to be pigmentless since they disappear shortly after hatching.

 

[erik]

My croceator should be hatching real soon too. My female ate about 60% of the clutch. From what I can see there are 5 eggs left. I'll post pics as soon as they hatch.

 

[paris]

ah-glad to hear you had success with yours erik! did you ever get any results out of the klauberi trio? mine did lay but after the male suddenly died the eggs went bad-so all i got now is a lone female. all eggs laid by all of my enatinas fungused and died. i am still afraid to take them out of the fridge where they are doing fine but obviously wont breed. any chance you know if these are they types who can store sperm for years after mating?

 

[russ]

Erik, I'd remove the female from the remaining eggs.

Paris, were the eggs with the females when they went bad? I haven't seen any go bad with fungus. Strange. Where's your lone female from?

I've heard it both ways about the female having to brood them. The trick is going to be pulling them before they're consumed. The female that ate her whole clutch this season did it within 48 hours of them being deposited. Sometimes I don't get to check for up to 5 days due to travel. That's why I'm not sure if some of the females retained or gorged. I guess I'll have to tag the boxes next time and have my wife check them while I'm gone.

RUSS

 

[paris]

yeah the eggs were with all the parents - it was hard to tell if they were ok on development. since quite a few adults of the different subspecies died from what ever it was (possibly moisture levels- they seem to like it drier than youd expect for a lungless animal that needs moist skin)-but i think they did go bad after i put them in the fridge so i believe it was an air circulation issue. my female is from an area near julian CA-id have to check a map to remember the county.

 

[paris]

county is san diego county-but that is a big area! the city of julian is easily on the map and it was within 15 miles of that where she was collected.

 

[erik]

6 croceators hatched last night. Mom is VERY protective of them. She will slap your hand with her head if you get near the babies. I also got to hear an Ensatina vocalize for the first time which was cool. I have separated the babies from mom.

 

[erik]

Sorry for the bad pics. Mom was pretty upset and I didn't want her to trample the babies while trying to defend them.

Paris- no I never got eggs from klauberi, the adults are doing fine, but no reproduction so far.

 

[russ]

Great pics Erik.

Paris, that mass die-off was probably from too much moisture. I really dampened mine this summer in prep for a long trip. Not contemplating the higher humidity in my house while we were gone they stayed too damp and I lost 4 to that weird necrosis. They really do seem to do well at lower moisture regimes. I know where you're talking about (Julian). Mine are all from Palomar. I'm hoping to get to Julian this winter to start a colony from there.

RUSS