# My Kukulcania Hibernalis Pictures



## Ungoliant (Apr 29, 2012)

I'd just like to share some pictures of my two southern house spiders. I wish I had bigger jars for them, but these should suffice for now.

  
This one laid eggs last week.


 
My husband found this one today while repairing some decking for a customer. (He had to destroy her web in the process, and she crawled onto his glove.) I think that she might be gravid.

I don't know what I'm going to do with a bunch of spiderlings once they are old enough to leave their mothers' webs. (I've never kept or fed any non-local specimens, so I'd be OK with releasing some of them.)


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## cacoseraph (May 4, 2012)

lol, peerblocker keeps me from seeing those =P

i am feeding my army of Kuk slings right now.  i did like 125 and will finish tomorrow.  The slings are doing really well in 2oz containers, 5 per.  they are around 1 month old now and have molted at least once since emerging


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## Ungoliant (May 4, 2012)

cacoseraph said:


> lol, peerblocker keeps me from seeing those =P


My pictures from BugGuide are blocked? Can you view them on their original pages?

_Kukulcania hibernalis_ #1

_Kukulcania hibernalis_ #2


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## catfishrod69 (May 4, 2012)

Awesome stuff. Im going to be in north carolina not next week, but the one after, for 9 days. K. hibernalis will be the main thing im searching for.


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## Galapoheros (May 4, 2012)

These are cool, I have several living in my house.  I have reason to believe their venom is very potent to other inverts, at least, because of what I've seen killed.  I don't know what studies there have been concerning their venom though.  I'd just let the slings go around the outside of my house if it were me, if there aren't pesticides used around the house.  There is a big female under some cedar trim in my house.  A large red wasp flew in and hit the web.  The spider attacked it and drug it under the trim, pretty impressive imo since spiders usually leave the whole wasp family alone, running for the hills.  Then there was one under a small desk I have.  Spider people won't like this but I fed it to an emperor scorpion, simply thinking it would be food.  The scorpion was taking too long to eat it, then I finally realized the scorpion was dead!, must have gotten bitten by the spider is my speculation and is another reason I suspect they may have a more potent venom than is thought by most of us.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Ungoliant (May 11, 2012)

Ungoliant said:


> I think that she might be gravid.


Look who laid eggs today!


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## Ungoliant (May 11, 2012)

Ungoliant said:


> Look who laid eggs today!


One day later, she has lost her "baby weight."


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## cacoseraph (May 13, 2012)

Ungoliant said:


> My pictures from BugGuide are blocked? Can you view them on their original pages?
> 
> _Kukulcania hibernalis_ #1
> 
> _Kukulcania hibernalis_ #2



they are blocked by my peer to peer security, not anything to worry about. i just thought it was funny


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## Ungoliant (Jun 15, 2012)

The eggs that my first Kuk laid on April 22 have finally hatched.


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## Mamata Polle (Jun 16, 2012)

Your spiders are gorgeous Ungoliant!!! Love the slings coming out of the egg sac.
You're so lucky, I've never been able to get mine to get cozy with natural stuff, they only like man made materials like cardboard, paper, pvc...ugh. It's like they're saying, "Dirt? Plants? Eeew Yucky!!!"
I noticed your spider who laid eggs looked just as thin as one of mine does right now. Is that still her in the new photo with the babies? She looks so healthy!
Be Well and God Bless,
Mamata


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## Ungoliant (Jun 16, 2012)

Thanks! The new mother isn't the same spider that I posted on May 11. However, that spider plumped up when I fed her the next day. They both look healthy now.

The Kuks that live around my property definitely prefer man-made materials. I think mine just put up with what's in the jar, because I didn't give them a choice. (There are plastic retreats in the jars, but one was added after the new mother had already spun a web, so she doesn't use it yet. The other spider spends 99% of her time in the retreat.) I think it also helps that I keep it dark for them by hanging a piece of black fabric over the shelf where I keep their jars.


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## Ungoliant (Jun 23, 2012)

Ungoliant said:


> The eggs that my first Kuk laid on April 22 have finally hatched.


The baby southern house spiders are now eight or nine days old. They seem to be doing well. They look a little bigger and darker than they did when they first emerged.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Jun 24, 2012)

I ran into some of these while cleaning windows on a mission project in a town about 40 minutes NE from me. Very neat little spiders. I'm not big into the true spiders, but these have always looked like little Ts to me. Didn't have anything to catch a couple of them, and there was a nice 3" one in one of the windows. It was awesome. Funny thing is, there are none of these in my area.


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## pitbulllady (Jun 24, 2012)

Chris_Skeleton said:


> I ran into some of these while cleaning windows on a mission project in a town about 40 minutes NE from me. Very neat little spiders. I'm not big into the true spiders, but these have always looked like little Ts to me. Didn't have anything to catch a couple of them, and there was a nice 3" one in one of the windows. It was awesome. Funny thing is, there are none of these in my area.


They are a lot like little T's, actually.  If you ever get a chance to pick one up, do so, and you won't be disappointed.  A female will live many, many years, just like many tarantula females do.

pitbulllady


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## Ungoliant (Jun 24, 2012)

Apparently, "mom" molted last night. (This explains why she didn't seem to be interested in food these past few days.)


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## Mamata Polle (Jun 25, 2012)

Wow, so the DO molt after maturity? That's incredible for a true spider. I guess that's why they live so long.
Be Well and God Bless,
Mamata


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## Ungoliant (Jun 26, 2012)

Mamata Polle said:


> Wow, so the DO molt after maturity? That's incredible for a true spider. I guess that's why they live so long.


The females continue to molt after they reach maturity. The males, on the other hand, do not. They only live long enough to reproduce. (I had one in captivity before, and he stopped eating once he reached adulthood.)

_Kukulcania hibernalis_ are fun to keep!


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## Ungoliant (Jul 6, 2012)

My second southern house spider (_Kukulcania hibernalis_) has been very busy. She recently molted, and the spiderlings are finally emerging from the eggs that were laid on May 11. Unfortunately, they're hiding in their retreat, so I can't get a very good picture of them.




Meanwhile, the first brood is now three weeks old.


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## Ungoliant (Jul 8, 2012)

The new mother made a rare appearance after molting and was surprisingly cooperative during her photo shoot.



I found this male southern house spider in the inescapable white canyon that is my bathtub.


I decided to experiment with a new method for relocating spiders that has less potential for injury. (Sometimes their legs get caught when sliding the cardboard under the jar to contain them.) I placed a paper towel roll nearby, and he crawled into it right away. (The dark tunnel seems like a good place to hide.) Unfortunately, he liked it so much that I had a difficult time getting him to crawl out of the roll and into the jar. (At one point, he actually ran out the other end and up my arm.) I did eventually get him into the jar and released him unscathed in an area where I know there are females.

Next time I'll try putting a dark cover around the jar to make it dark and appealing.


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## pitbulllady (Jul 9, 2012)

Aren't the males of this species some freakish-looking things, though?  They not only DON'T look like the females, they don't even look to me like something that should live on land.  I'm certain that on one of those many undersea wildlife documentaries I've watched over the decades I've seen some sort of crustacean that looks like this living around those hydrothermal vents near undersea volcanoes.  We're seeing a lot of mature males wandering around our house, too, so this must be the prime time of year for that.  I really need to upload some recent pics of a stand-off between two males of very different sizes that took place at the top of a cabinet.  No actual physical fighting, just lots of psychological warfare, lol.

pitbulllady


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## Ungoliant (Jul 9, 2012)

LOL! The arrow crab may be the male's long-lost cousin.

I'm rather fond of the males; one startled the hell out of my husband when it blindly crawled on him. Of course, my husband thought it was a brown recluse and reacted accordingly. He knows how to identify harmless male Kuks now but still jokingly calls them brown recluses.

I would love to see pictures of the Kuk standoff!


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## Ungoliant (Jun 25, 2013)

Today I found one of the largest male southern house spiders that I have ever seen. It would seem that he was wandering around the kitchen last night, because he fell into a plastic cup and could not climb out.

His body (not including the palps or legs) is about 11 mm (0.43 inches) long, and when he flattens his legs, he looks huge. He wouldn't stay still in that pose, but I did manage to get several good photos of him.

​​​

Naturally, I decided that he would be a good mate for my largest female Kuk. I hope she'll find him as impressive as I did.


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