Plurrrr

Wed 29 Jul 2020

Caribena versicolor: first molt in my care

Just before 4pm I noticed that the Caribena versicolor I keep had molted for the first time in my care. In the early afternoon I had added water to the enclosures of each of the ten tarantulas I keep, mostly slings. And I guess the increase in humidity triggered the molting process in the little spider. Or maybe it was just ready.

Caribena versicolor after molting
Caribena versicolor after molting.

After I had taken two photos with my iPhone 5 with a LED ring light plus macro lens I noticed a small mealworm crawling around in the enclosure. I always crush the head of mealworms prior to feeding them to my spiders, but I guess I didn't do it right with this one.

As the Caribena versicolor shouldn't eat for at least a week after molting I removed the mealworm and tried to feed it to the Hapalopus sp. Colombia "large" I keep. This spider also molted recently; I found an exuviae with it the 21st of this month. But it was not interested in eating the small mealworm.

Hapalopus sp. Colombia "large"
Hapalopus sp. Colombia "large".

In the end I fed the small mealworm to the Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens, which detected the wriggling prey item and picked it up to eat it.

Random Strings and Integers That Actually Aren’t

Recently the topic of generating random-looking coupon codes and other strings came up on internal chat. My go-to for something like that is always this solution based on Feistel networks, which I didn’t think was terribly obscure. But I was surprised when nobody else seemed to recognize it, so maybe it is.

Source: Random Strings and Integers That Actually Aren’t, an article by Josh Williams.

Related: Avoiding Confusion With Alphanumeric Characters, an article by Matthew Grissinger.

Sudoku Solver in Python

This post describes a Sudoku solver in Python. Even the most challenging Sudoku puzzles can be quickly and efficiently solved with depth first search and constraint propagation.

Source: Sudoku Solver in Python, an article by Lior Sinai.

Pterinochilus murinus having dinner

In the evening I noticed that the Pterinochilus murinus Red Color Form (RFC) I keep was out in the open, eating a mealworm that I had given to it earlier. Normally it eats inside its burrow, but now it was outside!

Pterinochilus murinus eating near its burrow entry
Pterinochilus murinus eating near its burrow entry.

I carefully moved the enclosure; a plastic container, and moved the clips away from the lid. Next, I got my iPhone 5 ready with a LED ring light and a macro lens.

Pterinochilus murinus eating on top of its burrow
Pterinochilus murinus eating on top of its burrow.

While I carefully took several photos the tarantula moved around a bit while holding its prey.

The spider has grown and changed a lot since it arrived at our house. As far as I know it has molted once while in my care.