Golden Glitter Gecko

Like just about every other kind of reptile on the planet, there’s going to come a time when they start to shed their skin. Leopard Geckos however shed their skin all at once rather than in pieces or over time. It kind of comes off like a suit.

How often does it happen?

This will vary for certain ages and maturity level but it’s obviously going to happen a lot more with baby Geckos than it will with adults. Depending on the age and maturity of your Leopard Geckos, they can shed at different frequencies and there’s not really a set timer under which this is going to or when this should happen. If you want to get a decent idea of how often this is going to happen, then you can easily just watch your Gecko and track its growth progress. The quicker it’s growing, the more frequently that it’s going to shed.

How do you know when it’s going to happen?

As babies will often shed far more than adults, there’s one very easy and one very telltale sign that a Gecko is about to shed off its skin. When this is about to happen, you’ll notice that the colors of the Gecko get considerably duller and as the skin starts to separate from the body, it’ll start turning white just before it happens. When they do skin, Leopard Geckos tend to eat all of their skin in the process while they’re shedding. There are actually a couple of fundamental reasons as to why they do this.

When a Gecko sheds its skin, it has to expel a lot of energy to do and it’s kind of like getting a very rigorous workout for the animal. So what do you want to do after you do a hard and long work out? You more than likely want to eat something and the very skin it shed just happens to be right there after the work out is done. Besides, all that energy has to be put back into the body somehow and the skin is the easiest way to do so.

Also, this is a trick that most Geckos pick up from being out in the wild and is something that’s kind of an internal alarm for them, but when they’re out in the wild, they’re best bet to stay safe is to not leave any tracks, kind of like a Green Beret. So to do this, it’s easier to just eat the skin rather than trying to hide it and giving potential predators a clue as to where it has been and where it’s going. Some animals use smell to pick up prey and leaving the skin behind could give off smell to help it find the Gecko, this is why it’s essential for them to eat the skin.

Shedding is usually a very simple and relatively simple process but in rare occasions, they don’t have the humidity that’s required to perform the self-procedure. You should make sure they have adequate housing and humidity if you notice your Leopard Geckos are about to start shedding because if you don’t have an efficient cage setup to do so, they’re going to have issues. It’s always essential to make sure that a Gecko sheds all of its skin off to ensure that the humidity is perfect because if there’s still some skin hanging onto it that it couldn’t shed off, the humidity may be to blame.

Commonly when there’s a problem shedding, skin will stick to the toe of the Gecko and while this may not sound like a problem, down the road, the toe can become restricted and blood flow to the tow may be cut off causing it to lose a toe. Sure, your Gecko will live, but I assume you’d want all of your toes would you not?

High humidity is basically the most important thing that you want to provide your Geckos when they start to shed. Leopard Geckos will usually try to migrate or go to a moist hiding place anyways, when they are shedding or when they’re not shedding. Some of the most common ways to obtain a moist shelter is to use a container that’s plastic and a lot of people have stated that a plastic cottage cheese container worked the best for them. Everyone finds their own preferred container. Just remember to cut a hole large enough that it can fit in but not too large to where a lot of light can get in.

You can use mulch inside of the container if you’d like to provide some bedding to help and aid the moisture inside the container. Make sure that the bedding that you do use (if you use any at all) isn’t dripping wet and is just moist enough to be enjoyable for your Leopard Geckos.

Don’t be afraid to devote a hand to helping your Gecko shed its skin off; it’s not going to hurt you. If you notice some of the skin hasn’t come off the big toe or that you think some of the skin wasn’t successfully shredded off, then you can use the following method:

1) Find a nice, small and suitable plastic container that’s clean to place wet towels in. Again, you don’t want them to be dripping but went enough to get the job done. Make sure they’re warm as well, cold water will probably frighten the Gecko.

2) Put a top on top of the container and let the Gecko sit like that for half an hour or longer if you feel that it’s not humid enough.

Once you feel it’s humid enough, what should happen now is, it should be easy to remove the skin with a pair of tweezers, since there more than likely won’t be a lot of skin to peel off. If that wasn’t long enough, then feel free to give it another 30 minutes.

Source: Geckocare

Orb-weaver spider

Orb-weaver spiders or araneids are members of the spider family Araneidae. They are the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields and forests. "Orb" was previously used in English to mean "circular",[2] hence the English name of the group. Araneids have eight similar eyes, hairy or spiny legs, and no stridulating organs.[1]

The family is cosmopolitan, including many well-known large or brightly colored garden spiders. With around 3,100 species in 169 genera worldwide, Araneidae is the third-largest family of spiders (behind Salticidae and Linyphiidae).[1] Araneid webs are constructed in a stereotyped fashion. A framework of nonsticky silk is built up before the spider adds a final spiral of silk covered in sticky droplets.

Orb-webs are also produced by members of other spider families. The large golden orb-weavers (Nephilidae) and the long-jawed orb weavers (Tetragnathidae) were formerly included in the Araneidae; they are closely related, being part of the superfamily Araneoidea. The cribellate or hackled orb-weavers (Uloboridae) belong to a different group of spiders. Their webs are strikingly similar, but use a different kind of sticky silk.

Web[edit]

Argiope sp. sitting on the stabilimentum at the center of the web

Spiderlings in the web near where they hatched

Close-up of the cephalothorax on Eriophora sp. (possibly E. heroine or E. pustuosa

Generally, orb-weaving spiders are three-clawed builders of flat webs with sticky spiral capture silk. The building of a web is an engineering feat, begun when the spider floats a line on the wind to another surface. The spider secures the line and then drops another line from the center, making a "Y". The rest of the scaffolding follows with many radii of nonsticky silk being constructed before a final spiral of sticky capture silk.

The third claw is used to walk on the nonsticky part of the web. Characteristically, the prey insect that blunders into the sticky lines is stunned by a quick bite, and then wrapped in silk. If the prey is a venomous insect, such as a wasp, wrapping may precede biting.

Many orb-weavers build a new web each day. Most orb-weavers tend to be active during the evening hours; they hide for most of the day. Generally, towards evening, the spider will consume the old web, rest for approximately an hour, then spin a new web in the same general location. Thus, the webs of orb-weavers are generally free of the accumulation of detritus common to other species, such as black widow spiders.

Some orb-weavers do not build webs at all. Members of the genera Mastophora in the Americas, Cladomelea in Africa, and Ordgarius in Australia produce sticky globules, which contain a pheromone analog. The globule is hung from a silken thread dangled by the spider from its front legs. The pheromone analog attracts male moths of only a few species. These get stuck on the globule and are reeled in to be eaten. Interestingly, both types of bolas spiders are highly camouflaged and difficult to locate.

The spiny orb-weaving spiders in the genera Gasteracantha and Micrathena look like plant seeds or thorns hanging in their orb-webs. Some species of Gasteracantha have very long, horn-like spines protruding from their abdomens.

One feature of the webs of some orb-weavers is the stabilimentum, a crisscross band of silk through the center of the web. It is found in a number of genera, but Argiope, the yellow and banded garden spiders of North America, is a prime example. The band has been hypothesized to be a lure for prey, a marker to warn birds away from the web, and a camouflage for the spider when it sits in the center of the web. However, recent research suggests the stabilimentum actually decreases the visibility of the silk to insects, thus making it harder for prey to avoid the web.[3] The orb-web consists of a frame and supporting radii overlaid with a sticky capture spiral, and the silks used by orb-weaver spiders have exceptional mechanical properties to withstand the impact of flying prey.[4]

During the Cretaceous, a radiation of angiosperm plants and their insect pollinators occurred. Fossil evidence shows that the orb web was in existence at this time, which permitted a concurrent radiation of the spider predators along with their insect prey.[5][6] The capacity of orb–webs to absorb the impact of flying prey led orbicularian spiders to become the dominant predators of aerial insects in many ecosystems.[7] Insects and spiders have comparable rates of diversification, suggesting they co-radiated, and the peak of this radiation occurred 100 Mya before the origin of angiosperms.[8] Vollrath and Selden (2007) make the bold proposition that insect evolution was driven less by flowering plants than by spider predation – particularly through orb webs – as a major selective force.

Most arachnid webs are vertical and the spiders usually hang with their head downward. A few webs, such as those of orb-weavers in the genus Metepiera have the orb hidden within a tangled space of web. Some Metepiera are semisocial and live in communal webs. In Mexico, such communal webs have been cut out of trees or bushes and used for living fly paper.[citation needed] In 2009, workers at a Baltimore Wastewater Treatment Plant called for help to deal with over 100 million orb-weaver spiders, living in a community that managed to spin a phenomenal web that covered some 4 acres of a building with spider densities in some areas reaching 35,176 spiders per cubic meter.[9]

Peucetia viridana

Peucetia viridana is a green colored spider with cephalothorax having brown spots. The head region has a few spines and the centre has deep fovea which is green in colour. The clypeus is long with two black lines extending from the base of the middle anterior eyes. The sternum is heart shaped, pointed behind and covered with pines and hair. The legs are long and strong covered with conspicuous black spots and black long spines. The abdomen is long, narrowing behind and covered with fine hair. A longitudinal deep brown line runs through the center of the abdomen with lateral branches.[2]

The females are about 10-12 mm in size and the males about 8–10 mm in size.

It is generally found on grass and low shrubs.