The problem with the water scorpion

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Entoursis, 06.09.2010 17:38

Hi.

There were problems with the water scorpion (Nepa cinerea), which lives in my house, namely deterioration of the condition, a drop in activity, sensitivity. Adult, body length without legs and tail - 2 cm. Lives with me for 2.5 months, has always been in good condition, active (for its kind). But then 2 days ago I woke up and found that scorpio was inactive, and did not respond to my touch at all. Of course, I was afraid, and the first thing that came to mind - maybe the water is dirty, although I changed it a week ago. Immediately, I put the scorpion in a separate container and quickly began to wash the aquarium and change the water. Usually the scorpion, being otsazhennym from his house, clearly protested, actively swam, tried to get out. Now, however, he was extremely sluggish, barely clinging to a twig and sitting down. I changed the water and put the scorpion back in. After 2 hours I went to check his condition, he was sitting motionless on a branch. I tried to touch it with my finger (it usually reacted immediately) but this time he didn't move. Carefully I unhooked it from the twig, and it floated on the surface like a corpse, legs down, motionless. Of course, I decided that it was dead, took it out of the aquarium, put it on a piece of paper. While I was thinking about what to do for 5 minutes, he moved slightly, and it turns out that he was alive. I returned it to the aquarium. For the past 2 days, he has been in this state, does not respond to touch. Usually it doesn't tolerate free swimming, but now you can unhook it from branches and even turn it upside down in the water. Only if you put it on the shore, it "comes to life" in 5 minutes to crawl to the water, and very sluggishly. Today I ate, also very sluggishly, barely rolled the worm, although I usually behaved extremely aggressively.
It lives in a shallow aquarium with a spacious bottom, there is soil, twigs and all the necessities. The water was changed as needed, and the bug felt fine for 2.5 months.
What could have happened to him and what can be done? Perhaps he is just old and begins to fade (after all, 2 cm body, large enough, and therefore too old), maybe he somehow loses activity for the winter and requires hibernation (the temperature of the aquarium did not change), or maybe he really could get sick with something. I do not know, but I really hope that someone here may be familiar with this animal and probably knows about its possible ailments.
Help save the animal... I will be very grateful.

This post was edited by Entoursis-06.09.2010 17: 39

Comments

06.09.2010 20:52, Dmitrii Musolin

it is likely that this is preparation for wintering, since the adult of this species is diapausing.

(Nepa cinerea L. – a widespread Palearctic species. It was studied in detail on the British Islands (Southwood and Leston, 1959). Adults mainly overwinter, but larvae of the fifth age can also overwinter. Mating was observed almost all year round, with the exception of August-September [Papaček, 1989]. In spring, females start laying eggs from the beginning of April. The egg-laying period usually stretches until September. Embryonic development is quite slow and takes up to 4 weeks. At the end of April, the first larvae appear. Larval development lasts about 2 months. During this time, the larvae pass 5 instars. Larvae are found in water bodies until November, and some of them, as indicated above, remain for the winter. Only one generation completes the entire range (Southwood and Leston, 1959; Papaček, 1989).)

(Saulich A. Kh., Musolin D. L., 2007. Seasonal development of aquatic and near-water hemipteran insects (Heteroptera). St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University Publishing House. 205 p. [www.unipress.ru/2007/sau.html])

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