Principoda planatigris Adults!

My first litter of Principoda planatigris "Paper Tiger" have all matured now, and the results are interesting. When Kyle made this cross years ago the adults had coloration more akin to P.vanwaerebeki "Tiger", with the yellow/ivory and black abdomens. However, mine have matured with very high orange/red coloration, quite different than what Kyle's looked like. It seems likely that the reason lies in the coloration of the females used to make this cross. 

My "Tiger" colony is rather variable in coloration and have been throwing out darker, more orange colored adults (see my last post for an example), some of which I used in this cross. So it's likely that this batch was birthed from a more orange colored "Tiger" female, and thus her specific coloration genetics were carried on and expressed in the offspring, combined with traits from the male Aeluropoda. Whereas Kyle's "Tigers" were a cleaner looking colony with less variability in their coloration and a cleaner look overall, which likely had an effect on the coloration of their hybrid offspring. So when making hybrids, it would appear that coloration of the parents used is very important in determining what the hybrid offspring will look like. 

I had assumed that coloration of the specific parents used in a cross didn't matter much when making hybrids, and that the hybrid offspring would revert to the "base" or "wild type" coloration of the parent species used. But evidently that's not the case. Which on the one hand, means we can have a LOT more variety in the hybrids we make in terms of breeding for specific coloration and patterning combinations, but on the other hand that means that you have to be careful with what parents you choose for creating hybrids if you have a specific look in mind.

Now, that being said, I did have a second litter of Principoda planatrigris born from another one of the "Tiger" females I used to make this cross, so I will be moving those nymphs to their own enclosure and see if they look any different, since they were birthed by a different female (same father Aeluropoda though).

Anyways, here are pictures of a pair from this first litter, my "Paper Tigers":

Male

Female

Pair

Pretty striking coloration on these beauties! Definitely gonna keep these going, even though they aren't quite what I was aiming for with this cross. I think the strain name "Paper Tiger" for this phenotype suits them quite well since they are flat, and very orange and black, like actual tigers (which, side note, why do we call Princisia vanwaerebeki "Tiger", "Tiger"? When the base coloration for that strain is ivory and black, not orange and black... 🤣).

Well, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉