This is what Leafy looks like now:
We presume he died of old age because the Australian Museum website puts the male spiny leaf insect life span at 6-8 months. We bought Leafy as a juvenile in December 2012, he moulted to adulthood in February 2013 and died around the beginning of November 2013. On the scale of spiny leaf insects, he had a pretty good run.
A few weeks before Leafy died, Spinelar reached her adult stage. Many times JazDragon's exclamation echoed through the house, "Oh my God! They're mating AGAIN!" Leafy did his best to pass on his genes before he shuffled off and Spinelar did start laying eggs before he died, so we are confident that a bunch of the lots and lots of eggs are fertilised.
JazDragon was very sad at Leafy's passing, but she knew it was coming. For several weeks, he'd been falling off branches and deciding that perhaps it was more comfortable having a bit of a rest on the floor of the enclosure. His last days were a constant cycle of resting on the floor, then dragging himself back up for a rest on Spinelar. Jaz decided to pin him up the way they do at the museum so she could always have him. The sign says "I miss you Leafy. PS. I love you." She even gave him a couple of playmates to keep him company.
No comments:
Post a Comment