Lasiodora parahybana feeding behavior

[z32upgrader]

My LP sling has an interesting feeding ritual. He/she is always interested in killing anything that dares to enter the enclosure, and immediately pounces on the prey. However, it always bites the cricket for a bit, then brings it to the middle of the deli cup then drops it, walks away, and a minute or so pounces again, walks away, pounces again and again before settling down to actually eat. The cricket is stone dead from the first attack, so it's pretty entertaining to watch my sling "practice" attacking its prey. Has anyone else observed this type of behavior with their LP or any other species? It is approximately 1" leg-span and doesn't care to burrow, just sits out and waits...

 

[Storm76]

Sounds hilarious to watch! My AF P. irminia made it a habit to kill crickets, throw them in the waterdish, roll them in the dirt and THEN eat them when she was a juvie still. Weird...but hey - I won't argue about adding their way of spices with them!

 

[Baki]

My LP once somehow split the dubia roach in half, she was eating the back half and the front half was trying to run away from her XD. Later she picked it up and finished it. She never burrows too, she has a hide but she never goes there, she just sits in the middle waiting for a roach to fall XD

 

[Hobo]

A few of my Ts would sometimes grab a cricket, bring it down into their hide/burrow/tube web, do a brief wrap with silk (feeding waltz), lay it down, go back out (usually just at the entrance) and sit there. After a while, they'll go back in and start wrapping it some more and eat it. I noticed this more with my slings.

If I dropped in another while they came back out, often they would do the same thing - lay it next to the other one before coming out again. If the ones they'd already caught start moving around a lot, they would return and crunch them up a bit, which usually resulted in it finally chowing down, but sometimes they would come out again.

I'm thinking it might be an adaptation to take advantage of large groups of bugs they may come into an area at once. It's easier to grab something if your face isn't full of food!
Maybe your sling was just re-securing the dead food item and being prepared for another potential meal.

That's just a guess though.

 

[Niffarious]

Tarantula version of the double tap?

 

[z32upgrader]

I'm thinking it might be an adaptation to take advantage of large groups of bugs they may come into an area at once. It's easier to grab something if your face isn't full of food!
Maybe your sling was just re-securing the dead food item and being prepared for another potential meal.

That's just a guess though.

That does sound reasonable, and a good tactic for a species like LP's