Had a bit of a scare last week, I opened one of my Prionotheca cups and the larva was on top of the substrate, upside down and very thin. I had seen it make a bit of a molting tunnel earlier and assumed it was in premolt, so I had been leaving it alone for the most part, but I accidentally let the lower layers of the substrate dry out too much and evidently the tunnel collapsed and the larva just dug it's way to the top, in search of moisture probably...
So I instantly misted the top of the substrate quite a bit, smoothed it out and placed the larva on top, hoping that'd be enough moisture to get it to molt correctly, and that I hadn't just killed one of my precious trio...
Thankfully, that's just what was needed, and the larva molted perfectly fine the next day, stayed on top of the substrate for a day or two, (seems they take a while to fully sclerotize after molting), and then it burrowed down. 😅 I've since moved it to a larger enclosure with a deeper substrate, and have made sure the lower layer inch or so is nice and humid.
Here are some pictures of the larva when it was still a little teneral, (mostly close up shots):
Love the way these larvae look, very broad and bulky things! 😁
So, crisis averted, and all three of my precious Prionotheca seem to be doing OK! They're taking a while to grow, but I think that's because my room's gotten quite a bit cooler now that it's late Fall, and I don't have them directly near my heat cable (that's being dedicated to my roaches ATM)... So this may add a couple more months to their growth cycle, but as long as they're alive and healthy, that's all I care about right now.
Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, hope y'all enjoyed, see you next time! 😉
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