Do hissers have built-in population control mechanics?

A

aoikirin

Third Instar
I was thinking about whether the adults are self aware of the amount of space they occupy in captivity and will cut back on mating and reproduction if the enclosure gets too  full?  Alternatively  would they just breed ad nauseum  until they had crowded out their small space?

 
Judging from keeper stories, even if they do have such behaviors the cage still overpopulates. Perhaps there are just too many predators in Madagascar...?

 
I haven't noticed any changes in breeding as colonies get larger, but the adult males will kill each other if they don't have enough space to each have a small territory to themselves. For my G. oblongonotas, this space was about a 12" diameter area, but with my A. insignis, they seem happy with about a 5" diameter area. As they're breeding, I'm seeing more and more newly adult males losing legs and antenna as the reigning males hold their territory. The same happened with my G. oblongonota and the king male ended up killing all of the other adult males in the bin. He was particularly feisty, though. I ended up separating him from the colony. That being said, I haven't noticed the same with Elliptorhina, only Gromphadorhina.

 
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