Unexpected jumping spiderlings

[wazowski]

Hello,

about 6 weeks ago my wildly caught jumping spider made her second nest inside a rolled piece of tissue. She stayed inside for 2 weeks at first, then came out for a hew hours once every 2 days. Since she made one nest before in which she stayed for a whole month, I assumed she just made another one to rest. She came out of it today as usual, and after glancing at the nest's entrance I noticed there was a single tiny baby jumping spider. I totally did not expect it as I assumed she was not fertile since nothing hatched after the first nest.
Now here comes the problem. I don't think I have anything to feed them and if I release them they will surely die since it's the middle of winter where I live. The only spider food I have available are flightless hydei fruit flies and a mealworms from my colony. The fruit flies are approximately 3-4 times bigger than the spiderlings, so I highly doubt they will be able to take them down. So what should I do? Order melanogaster fruit flies? As I mentioned it's the middle of winter, outside temperature is below freezing and there might be a problem with shipping. How long will they be able to survive without food?
I'll provide some photos.

Here is the spiderling that I saw. It's incredibly tiny so I apologize if the pictures are of low quality.

Here is a picture of the nest and the enclosure (with my Betta tank next to it). As you might notice the nest's located in a quite hardly accessible spot, so perhaps I should move it to the ground so that the spiderlings have easier time coming out? My only concern is that mom might get confused and not able to find it after that.

Here's the mom walking on the nest

Here she is attaching the nest to the glass, which on a side note is an interesting behavior that I have never read or heard of before, she did it multiple times.

Here is probably the best photo of her that I have taken, if any of you could help in identifying her. I live in Poland (SW) and reading about the local species (not that much information out there unfortunately) I'm pretty sure this is Evarcha arcuata.

Here is a month old photo of her just sitting in the nest

And lastly as a bonus here is a photo of her and my betta staring at each other. They do it quite often.

I'd appreciate any advice on what to do with the spiderlings. What a way to greet the new year.

 

[wazowski]

So far 3 of them left the nest. Since it's in a weird position they probably won't be coming back. Tried giving them the flies but they are at least twice as big and the spiderlings only get scared and run away. I ordered a melanogaster colony online and it should arrive in 2 days. How long can the spiderlings go on without eating? This is their first emergence.
Also just realized they are small enough to fit through ventillation holes.

 

[sdsnybny]

You might try pre killed prey for them, just put a few fruit cupped flies in the freezer for 10 min then thaw them out. As for the vent holes you can get a womens' nylon stocking/pantyhose to cover the holes or even the entire enclosure.

 

[wazowski]

You might try pre killed prey for them, just put a few fruit cupped flies in the freezer for 10 min then thaw them out. As for the vent holes you can get a womens' nylon stocking/pantyhose to cover the holes or even the entire enclosure.

So you're saying they eat dead flies too? That's very interesting since they have never seen a fruit fly in their lives and are somehow able to recognize them even though they aren't moving. Thank you, I will try that.

 

[sdsnybny]

So you're saying they eat dead flies too? That's very interesting since they have never seen a fruit fly in their lives and are somehow able to recognize them even though they aren't moving. Thank you, I will try that.

This is based of of feeding tiny Tarantula slings pre killed prey or a pulled off cricket leg which they take quit easily. I haven't yet kept Jumping spiders.

 

[wazowski]

So my current plan is to transfer all of the spiderlings to a separate, smaller container once they come out. Is this a good idea? Don't they need to stay near the nest or with their mother for a little longer?

 

[wazowski]

Speaking of the interesting attaching behavior, here's what she did today. It happens once in a few days and I have to tear apart one of the attachments because she can't get to her nest later, sometimes the entrance is completely blocked.

 

[wazowski]

So so far no more spiderlings have come out since yesterday, the only 2 I have collected and put into a separate container. Is it possible they are stuck in the nest or is it normal for them to emerge over a few days?

 

[Draketeeth]

So so far no more spiderlings have come out since yesterday, the only 2 I have collected and put into a separate container. Is it possible they are stuck in the nest or is it normal for them to emerge over a few days?

When I had a P. audax who made a sac, the slings took their time about emerging. But that was one sac, so I don't know if that's a standard. You probably got the bold individuals who said enough was enough and wanted some leg space, so they left the nest first.

 

[wazowski]

When I had a P. audax who made a sac, the slings took their time about emerging. But that was one sac, so I don't know if that's a standard. You probably got the bold individuals who said enough was enough and wanted some leg space, so they left the nest first.

4 more came out today. I have to move them all to a small, separate container as the original terrarium is too big for them, hope this isn't too bad for them. Still don't have food for them, they run away from the hydei flies and don't care about dead ones. Anyone know how long they can go without food?

 

[Krystal Anne]

I haven't kept jumping spiders, but I've raised several other true spider slings from the size of a speck of dust.

From my experience, just like tarantula spiderlings, they WILL eat pre-killed prey. Id probably chop up/pre-kill one of your mealworms and leave it by the nest for them to scavenge, but you should be careful about molding and stuff like that. Remove anything uneaten or rotting.

I've got a true spiderling right now, way smaller than an ant, and she eats fresh cricket legs that I place on her tiny little web, even if the leg is 5x bigger than her.

And to answer your question, I once had a true spiderling not eat for maybe 2 months and survive. I'm sure other species can survive longer or maybe not as long.

Like I said, I haven't had experience with jumping spiders but hopefully this helped! Good luck with your babies!

 

[Andrea82]

Springtails may work for the little ones. They move a lot so they provide incentive to be hunted
You should be able to order them online as well, probably from the same site you ordered melanogaster.

Edit: Collembola is the scientific name, i think.

 

[JoP]

They'll start eating each other before they'll starve, which is fine. They do it in nature as well, but don't be surprised if you lose a few to cannibalism.

 

[wazowski]

So I thought I'd give a quick update. The spiderlings are OK, the smaller fruit flies arrived shortly and they ate them happily. One spiderling hasn't eaten anything since emerging, he is now sitting still in his container with a fly but doesn't react to it and only moves when I poke him. So far no acts of cannibalism but I saw them attempt an attack on others a few times. There were only 11 in total which seems like a very small amount, maybe it's this specie's thing, I don't know. Today I transferred 5 of them into their own, separate containers so that they are safe. I plan on keeping a male and a female for myself and releasing the rest in 3-4 months when it gets warm. I'll provide some photos I took in the course of that time. Once again I apologize if some of them are bad quality, my camera is not the highest quality and the spiderlings are extremely tiny.

Here's a bigger container I transferred all 11 of them initially. It's a PVC cylinder with vent holes poked through. The bottom is organic cotton, the two tubes you can see are just plastic straws. The one on the left is used to give them water without opening the lid and making fuss. It's attached to a small, transparent plastic cup with cotton in it to prevent them from drowning. The straw in the middle is used for dropping fruit flies inside. You can also see a decor which is just a piece of wood with fake plant glued to it. The spiderlings are 3 days old in this photo.

Here's a zoom on the guy (or a girl I think) you can see in the photo above eating a fruit fly.

Here's a different sling sitting on the decor. I insert this photo mainly to compare their size to the fruit flies.

Pretty much all of them had been eating fruit flies onwards but I didn't take any good photos.

Here's a sling taking out a big hydei fruit fly. Not of very good quality but I was very impressed when I saw such a small guy jump on it, it was an intense fight. He must've been desperate for food. This is day 8.

They clearly increased in size at this point and started showing the Evarcha patterns on their backs.

A photo from yesterday of a male (I think) sling constructing a retreat. I didn't know spiderlings do that, I originally saw him in a weird position and thought he got stuck inbetween the lid and the wall.

And 2 very bad quality photos from different angles, but hopefully you can see the very thin, white webbing.

A few hours later some bigger spiderling came in, forced the constructor out stealing the retreat and staying in it himself.

And here's the current setup sitting on my desk, 6 in the big one and 5 in each of his own container. They are really fun to watch.

Three of the separated spiders already ate. This is a photo taken from above of one of them eating taken 3h ago. It's clearly turning black so I guess I identified the species correctly. Evarcha arcuata has a visible sexual dimorphism with males being black and females brown-ish.

One intriguing thing I noticed but never took a photo of is the spiderlings hanging on threads when it gets dark. I saw them doing it when I lit a desk lamp at night. I'd say about 70% of them were hanging. I saw my female doing it before rarely but never suspected spiderlings would do it too. I couldn't find anything about this behavior online, I only found a single video on youtube of a spider doing it.

All of this is a very unique and interesting experience from which I learned a lot and it all started with me watching a video of a cute spider on YouTube. I'd never think such small creatures could be so intriguing. I believe my first female is going to be making another egg sac soon because she is getting really fat once again. Or I just fed her too much.
Cheers!

 

[Ungoliant]

One intriguing thing I noticed but never took a photo of is the spiderlings hanging on threads when it gets dark. I saw them doing it when I lit a desk lamp at night. I'd say about 70% of them were hanging. I saw my female doing it before rarely but never suspected spiderlings would do it too. I couldn't find anything about this behavior online, I only found a single video on youtube of a spider doing it.

Check to see if any of them molted. Many true spiders will hang from a silk line as they molt.