Really? That's your initial reaction?

[pitbulllady]

I would have to say I agree with paaassatt about the spinneret/cribellum discussion. (Good analogy too!)

I went looking (Quick, not in depth) hunt for these spiders, I just done a quick check in an old storage building. I just shined a flashlight around and looked for their webs and didn't find any. Then again, I only checked for about 20 seconds before a bee scared me off. Anyone have any pics of these in their webs, not in a terrarium but like out in the wild but it can be on human things like a shack. Also, is anyone sure if I am in there area? I am in the Catawba river basin and I can give the county if needed.

Here is a pic of a shed in our backyard that serves as an "apartment complex" for K. hibernalis; you can see the webs:

Here is a female that made her home inside a metal pipe underneath the garage:

This girl had a web/den underneath the vinyl siding on a shaded side of the house:

Mating pair underneath the garage, male on the left:

Female living behind a piece of plyboard underneath my sister's garage; I had to remove this spider at my sister's request and wound up sending this one to someone in TX.

Didn't mean to hijack the thread, but wanted to show how the webs and colonies look "in the wild" for people who are looking for these.

pitbulllady

 

[JZC]

Ooooohhhhhhh those are amazing!

 

[Biollantefan54]

Wow thanks a lot! I can t wait to go looking, now that I know what to look for lol. Awesome pics by the way.

 

[darksidemxer]

That light brown male looks like a recluse. Whats the tell tale difference? Also why are these so interesying? I have literally dozens around my moms house. I got 1 in my batheroom right now. Big black 1. They are just a common house spider no?

 

[pitbulllady]

That light brown male looks like a recluse. Whats the tell tale difference? Also why are these so interesying? I have literally dozens around my moms house. I got 1 in my batheroom right now. Big black 1. They are just a common house spider no?

A lot of people mistake mature male K. hibernalis for "brown recluse", although to an experienced person, they look very different. The eye arrangement is completely different, with K. hibernalis having eight tiny eyes arranged in a cluster on top of the cephalothorax, while L. reclusa and related species only have six eyes, in the front, arranged in what vaguely resembles a "face" or "skull" pattern. K. hiberalis has a pointed front to the cephalothorax, somewhat like the prow of a boat, and the mature males have extremely long pedipalps that jut way out in front of them, folding up like a pocket knife until in use. I don't have any recluse pics because they aren't found here, but here is a relative, one of the same family, a spitting spider, Scyodes sp., so you can see that eye arrangement, which is the same as in L. reclusa, with the six eyes being arranged in three separate pairs:

and

.
Here is a lone mature male K. hibernalis, showing those looong pedipalps(seen here folded so you can only see the "femur") and that cluster of tiny eyes up on top. Also note the lack of a "fiddle" marking on the dorsal surface, which is seen in the recluses:

.

As for why some people like this species or find them fascinating, I do understand that often when something is common, people tend to overlook its attributes, "familiarity breeds contempt" in effect. Many people who are into keeping true spiders, though, including people from the South such as myself, find this species ideal for keeping. They are large, they are docile and can be handled if you so choose, they are very easy to keep considering that they can take virtually any invert prey and cannot climb out of smooth-surfaced containers, they do have a nice subtle iridescence about them, and best of all, the females have a very long lifespan, comparable to many female xeric tarantulas. They are also a colonial species so if you're careful in your set-up and introductions you can keep multiple specimens in the same enclosure. They have a very interesting social structure that is fun to observe. In short, they are basically many of the positive traits of a tarantula without actually being a Mygalamorph! One of the biggest drawbacks in keeping true spiders for me is their all-too-brief lifespans, but you can keep a female K. hibernalis and get multiple eggsacs from her for many, many years.

pitbulllady

 

[darksidemxer]

Awesome! Thanks for that post. So the spider i killed the other night was then not a recluse.. i found it in my bed and it scared the hell out of me and my wife. Initial reaction was squish!

 

[Truffs1178]

Awesome! Thanks for that post. So the spider i killed the other night was then not a recluse.. i found it in my bed and it scared the hell out of me and my wife. Initial reaction was squish!

Really? That's your initial reaction?

 

[darksidemxer]

When u wake up cuz u feel something crawling on you...u grab ur flashlight and fling the covers yes it is my reaction lol.

 

[Truffs1178]

Lol I was joking.

And I thought you meant that you were getting into bed and saw it.

 

[darksidemxer]

I know u were joking lol nah getting into bed id catch it and toss it in the woods. The only spiders i let live in my home are the jumpers. I love those guys.

 

[Truffs1178]

Same, if I put a fly or something in front of them they pounce on it which I love watching.

 

[Silberrücken]

I haven't forgotten about this thread - still working on YT vids. I've only got like 500 DVD's full of mixed stuff, and have to find them all.

pitbulllady's last post pretty much sums it up. Just trust us Kuk keepers.... these are just fascinating spiders.

 

[JayDangerVL]

Cool! Hope it stays healthy for you! Congrats on the find and the life-save!

 

[darksidemxer]

I got one of those black house spiders in a crack by my bathroom window. Right next to where it webs is my carrier with crickets lol. So im down to 1 cricket and last night while im working lol, im watching the cricket be right up against the glass and the spidr run out touch the glass and run back. So i think it knew there was food there but was confused by the glass. I watched for probly 3mins and felt bad so i tossed the cricket into its web. The cricket is now stuffed halfway in this crack where the spider lives lol. And i wonder why my family thinks im weird.

 

[edgeofthefreak]

...and i wonder why my family thinks im weird.

Just yesterday I moved a bag of peat moss on my balcony, to find an adorable Parasteadota of sorts living under it. But it's getting so very cold outside, so I brought her in.... and settled her among a pile of boxes in my office.

Is it weird to shoo spiders out of the world, and into your house??

 

[The Snark]

Just yesterday I moved a bag of peat moss on my balcony, to find an adorable Parasteadota of sorts living under it. But it's getting so very cold outside, so I brought her in.... and settled her among a pile of boxes in my office.

Is it weird to shoo spiders out of the world, and into your house??

"We can live without the benefits of most modern development and many of the amenities that go with it. We can't live without mother nature." -Gerald Durrell, paraphrased-

 

[Lucidd]

Just yesterday I moved a bag of peat moss on my balcony, to find an adorable Parasteadota of sorts living under it. But it's getting so very cold outside, so I brought her in.... and settled her among a pile of boxes in my office.

Is it weird to shoo spiders out of the world, and into your house??

The other evening I went scouting the yard for grass spiders that will probably die soon from the cold. I found one and spent a good 15 minutes freezing my butt off in my pajamas to coax her out of her funnel.
Seems normal to me.