New millipede suddenly dead

    A millipede that was bought a week and a half or so is dead. It was laying in the food bowl (it had not food in it). It is limp and the top part is more limp than the end half. It seemed so healthy, it was very fat. What can kill them very fast? The others seem fine.

    It was an A. gigas and I am not sure if it was wild caught. I believe so, but it had no missing legs and it is now illegal to import them so it may have been in captivity for some time. As a coincidence, it was the girl that I saw mating many times with a male.

    A. gigas often die after oviposition. so maybe you have some tiny-lil millipedes in 1-2months :beer:

    hi snipes,
    my gigas-lady died last week too.i kow that it was a wildcaught.don`t know what the problem was.can`t see if it was ill. i hope that i will be" mohter" of little gigas next.
    i was very sad about the dead.

    greetings maria

    Oh my, I do hope so. THe others seem to be doing just fine. One of the non-new girls was sick and weak and it seems to be doing better with the new substrate. :). Why do they die sometimes after oviposition, and why might they not? I have heard much about how mating is easy but getting the soil to be right for the little ones is hard. I am going to get H. miles in a week or so because the cage has mites all over. Could they harm pedelings? I have also stopped watering the soil except for the sides so the adults can drink. Do pedelings need a different amount of moisture?
    I am sorry to hear about your girl maria, i hope you have babies

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von Snipes (17. Mai 2007 um 06:25)

    hi snipes,
    i hope the same for you.i understand your questions,but can`t find the right words to explain.for this i need a dictionary.but i have to work now.so i try to answer you tomorow,if it`s needed.so i think there will be others,who can say something about oviposition and pedelings.
    have a nice week-end
    greetings
    maria

    Hi,
    That the females die after ovipostion are only experiences in keeping. In nature the males mostly die after the mating season but the females suvive for several years e.g. Spirostreptidae spec. 1. Maybe in keeping there is the problem that the females produce a big amount of eggs but they don't oviposite them (all) which leeds to the dead.
    For A. gigas the substrate have to be WET (not moist) for laying eggs. This species is quite tolerant against heat and dryness and opposite to other species [lexicon]adult[/lexicon] A. gigas are on the surface before the rainy season starts. So, they will lay their eggs at the beginning of the rainy season. Other species occur only at the middle or end of the rainy season when the rain decrease.
    The number of layed eggs combined with the frequency of mating (scientific observations: Archispirostreptus tumuliporus) . More matings, more eggs are layed. So, it is better to have more males than females.