I've been putting off making this post, since this was my most foolish hobby related blunder of 2020 by a long shot, but here goes... One of my three Prionotheca coronata larvae has died, leaving me with only two. 😟
I was keeping them too cool apparently, probably around 68-70F°, and so one of the larvae was unable to molt properly due to the low temps and got partially stuck in it's skin. I did my best to gently brush off as much old shed as I could once it was apparent it wasn't getting out on it's own, as it had ALMOST gotten free of it's shed, but it didn't shed it's intestinal tract correctly, and all six legs were stuck in the old skin... Despite my best efforts, it died a couple days later, on New Year's Eve.
I'm quite devastated by this loss, as now my breeding prospects for this species are significantly lessened, and even if I have a sexed pair, I have absolutely no room for error now, both must make it to adulthood successfully. And again, it really comes down to luck, whether I wind up with a pair or not. These were the last three Prionotheca left in the US, so I really feel this was a monumental screw-up on my part, all because I kept the larvae too cool... 😣
I moved my remaining two larvae to a warmer location, and one of them that had also been in pre-molt for a while molted perfectly fine. So hopefully I can rear these two up with little issue, and miraculously end up with a sexed pair, time will tell.
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