That's true. I added it as an aside. I think the venom is what makes them interesting. I keep many tarantulas but I want to start keeping true spiders.
Of our native species, I'd have to say either Kukulcania hibernalis or Nephila clavipes.
Wow. I didn't know that any spiders shared kills. Lovely.Of our native species, I'd have to say either Kukulcania hibernalis or Nephila clavipes.
Kukulcania hibernalis is incredibly long lived for a true spider. Females in captivity can live for 9+ years. They gradually build elaborate webs with one or more tunnel-like entrances. Their frayed silk is mechanically very sticky despite lacking glue. Most interestingly, the mothers show an unusual level of maternal care for spiders, allowing the slings to share her kills for several weeks before they disperse.
The Grey Lady, one of my mature females:
Nephila clavipes is a gentle giant, and its golden silk is amazingly strong.
I wholeheartedly agree here, i used to keep at least 3 nephila clavipes and if given enough space they made huuge golden webs that they would dance accross to get to food, however unfortunately my biggest female was not a fan of males XD.I would have to choose the Nephila in general. If one word sums up their appearance it would be elegant. Graceful, their movements similar to ballet steps, tolerant, enduring, allowing and even protecting male suitors in their webs. They epitomize the grace and class of araneae.
Theres actually a few species that do this such as colonial huntsnan spiders of new Zealand
You know, this is a little odd. It seems mature female nephs have individual moods and personalities. I had one beside the house that completely ignored my presence. Then one day I noticed a male in her web. In about a week she changed completely, giving a full blown threat display if I got within about 6 inches of the web. Another gal had 4 or 5 males move into her web. They all stayed in one quadrant out near the perimeter. Then I noticed she moved from web center to a few inches away from the males. As the males ranged over a wider area she kept moving away from them until she was only about 6 inches from the edge. Weird.
Same here. Growing up in California I was always warned about the dangers of black widows and like the forbidden fruit this just made me intrigued. Pretty soon I was checking out books on black widows in my school library which led to me reading more books about different spiders until I eventually read a book on wolf spiders which really stuck out to me and caused my love of the Carolina wolf spider. So I guess you could say that being told not to go near spiders sparked my love of being around spiders. I want to own a black widow now but my parents won't let me because my dad made the mistake of not checking before moving a wood pile and got a bite from one and this was enough to scare my parents out of ever letting me have one
Oh yeah. while I was trying to pair a male and female triangulate cobweb spider I put a meal worm in there enclosure and they both sucked on it lady and the tramp style
I spent some quality time with him, and he was so aware of the surroundings. A horsefly flew by 1½ meters away and he watched it! I put my head to the wall and we looked into eachothers eyes for a while. <3