# Help! Jumping spider eggs......



## Joanne (Jun 22, 2007)

Hi everyone - I have a jumping spider that I thought was a male, but has just laid eggs, so she is obviously a female.  I didn't have much interest in spiders until my 8 yr old son developed a fascination for them, and I started taking photos of them with my new macro lens. Now we have lots of fun observing, etc. 
 We found a really cute little (actually BIG) jumper about 3 weeks ago. We made him a really nice home..... aquarium tank with soil, real plants, sticks to climb up, etc... and have been enjoying watching his antics. Ivan (my son's name for him - Ivan the Terrible  ) was getting nice and fat on the food we would catch for him. Then...... last night..... Ivan (now renamed Ivana!) laid eggs........ 
  Does anyone know how long till they hatch? I don't know her species, other than she is some type of Phidippus.... I can't find any information anywhere on the gestation of the eggs.... only that she will stand guard until they hatch. I just don't know how long that will be! We are going away for 2 weeks soon, and were planning to take Ivan with us... we can't now, as the glass tank is absolutely huge........ and she has laid the eggs in it. 
 Any help or info would sure be appreciated! 
Joanne


----------



## Joanne (Jun 22, 2007)

*pics*

I thought I'd attach a few pictures, showing the home I have her in, her face (cute!), and the newly laid eggsac from last night.  
 Joanne


----------



## cacoseraph (Jun 22, 2007)

awesome pictures

dunno about the eggsac, sorry


----------



## Joanne (Jun 22, 2007)

thanks cacoseraph  - I have tons of pictures of her - she's really quite entertaining and expressive.  
Joanne


----------



## beetleman (Jun 22, 2007)

nice little jumper ya got there,she will stay w/eggs untill they hatch,then the babies will disperse,they are TINY doesn't take that long for them to hatch either,ive had them years back i'm not sure exactly the hatching time(don't remember:wall: ) but i used to let all the babies go since they were native where i am. hope this helps alittle.


----------



## Spyder 1.0 (Jun 22, 2007)

ive had a black jumping spider in my collection for quite some time aswell. It moves and acts like a gorilla. Too bad it hasnt mated in the wild before i caught it. Its very interesting to watch them hunt small earwigs or baby crickets.


----------



## jen650s (Jun 22, 2007)

Great pictures, she sure is cute.  Here's a good article on Phidippus reproduction.  It covers several species and talks about time to hatching for wild caught gravid females. http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v16_n1/JoA_v16_p95.pdf You'll have to cut and paste the link, but it is a good article.  
Good luck!


----------



## Joanne (Jun 22, 2007)

beetleman said:


> nice little jumper ya got there,she will stay w/eggs untill they hatch,then the babies will disperse,they are TINY doesn't take that long for them to hatch either,ive had them years back i'm not sure exactly the hatching time(don't remember:wall: ) but i used to let all the babies go since they were native where i am. hope this helps alittle.


Thanks Beetleman, that does help - I wasn't sure if she was about to die soon or not.....  I guess I will find out soon enough how long it will be! I'm planning to let the babies go free in my virginia creeper vine - it always gets leafhoppers by mid-summer, so they should have lots to eat, and I won't have to spray this year!  
Joanne


----------



## Joanne (Jun 22, 2007)

spyderowner69 said:


> ive had a black jumping spider in my collection for quite some time aswell. It moves and acts like a gorilla. Too bad it hasnt mated in the wild before i caught it. Its very interesting to watch them hunt small earwigs or baby crickets.


I agree - they are so fun to watch!! I can't say that I was personally as happy when I saw her laying eggs - ha ha - this is the first spider I've purposely kept in the house.....    What we do for our kids! 
 
Joanne


----------



## Joanne (Jun 22, 2007)

jen650s said:


> Great pictures, she sure is cute.  Here's a good article on Phidippus reproduction.  It covers several species and talks about time to hatching for wild caught gravid females. http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v16_n1/JoA_v16_p95.pdf You'll have to cut and paste the link, but it is a good article.
> Good luck!


    Hey - thanks sooo much Jen!!!! That looks like an awesome article.... I searched the net for hours looking for something like that!!!!  I'm off to read it now - wonderful !!!!!!!!!
   
Joanne


----------



## syndicate (Jun 22, 2007)

awesome pictures.i to am very facinated my the jumpers.been trying to get pics of them lately but its quite difficult with the camera im using now.what camera/lens kit are u working with?


----------



## Joanne (Jun 22, 2007)

syndicate said:


> awesome pictures.i to am very facinated my the jumpers.been trying to get pics of them lately but its quite difficult with the camera im using now.what camera/lens kit are u working with?



Thanks syndicate - I really enjoy watching them and taking pictures of them too. I don't find all spiders "cute"  - but these guys sure are!   I'm relatively new to photography - have had my camera for 2 yrs now, and sure have fun learning! I have a Canon Rebel XT, with a Canon 100mm macro lens. 
  She's finished covering the eggs in silk today now, and is standing guard - just took this an hour ago. 
Joanne


----------



## Skypainter (Jun 23, 2007)

Awwwww.  She's adorable!


----------



## Joanne (Jun 23, 2007)

Skypainter said:


> Awwwww.  She's adorable!


 She is isn't she? It's amazing what one can notice with a macro lens - I am so glad that I got one! 
  I took a picture of this fly that she was done with once - just to take a picture of something - but then was amazed to see those 2 fang-holes once I looked at it on the computer.....neat stuff! 

  I know that she likely wouldn't eat many flies in the wild - since they would normally just fly away. But now that she's sticking right by her eggsac, I doubt she will take the time to catch many more...... does anyone know what else I could offer her? She's eaten mosquitos and moths, but again, those fly........  there aren't a lot of ground-crawling bugs around here aside from ants..... any ideas? Would she possibly eat maggots? (that I can buy at a fish-bait place and keep in the fridge?). 
 Joanne


----------



## Arachnomaniak (Jun 23, 2007)

Great pics and really nice home for her!  I absolutley LOVE jumping spiders.  You can actually watch them watching you!  Really neat to see them running around checking out their environments.  If you could say that spiders are intelligent, this would be the family you could see it in!  Your son sounds like me when I was little, only my parents didn't like animals   Kudos to you for encouraging his interest while enjoying it yourself :clap:


----------



## Joanne (Jun 23, 2007)

Arachnomaniak said:


> Great pics and really nice home for her!  I absolutley LOVE jumping spiders.  You can actually watch them watching you!  Really neat to see them running around checking out their environments.  If you could say that spiders are intelligent, this would be the family you could see it in!  Your son sounds like me when I was little, only my parents didn't like animals   Kudos to you for encouraging his interest while enjoying it yourself :clap:


 Thanks so much - I was raised in the bush in the middle of nowhere, so creatures were always of interest to me.... though I must say that I was never interested in spiders as a kid, being a girl and all - lol! But now I'm raising my kids in the middle of a big city, so I like to encourage any appreciation for the wild things. I've seen cute little jumping spiders before, but never one so large as this one! She really is expressive, and you're right - she watches you're every move, and will leap from finger to finger, rearing up...... I read somewhere that jumping spiders have very large brains, and that they are (I think) the only spider that will actually eat bugs that are already dead, because they recognize it as food....... good eyesight must help too. I really tried to make her habitat as natural as possible.... apparently she approved since she laid the eggs. 
 My son just loves all creatures - spiders especially. We've really had some fun times just exploring and taking photos together. I must admit though - he's the one that puts things on his finger for the photos - lol - I havn't gotten past that one yet..... I love to look, but having them crawl on my is another story!  
  Hope this is o.k. off-topic since it's a moth..... but 2 summers ago my son was so excited to find this cool moth...... he absolutely adored it! When he realized it was dying a few days later, he was devestated...... but it was a life lesson.....  
Joanne


----------



## Pogi5 (Jun 24, 2007)

That was a great series of shots right there!
I think it's great that you're encouraging him to appreciate things from the wild.
Can you be my mom?


----------



## Joanne (Jun 24, 2007)

Joanne


----------



## IdahoBiteyThing (Jul 2, 2007)

*coincidence*

Glad I found this thread; I have a female Phiddipus somethingorotherus that has made a beautiful egg sac right above my bathroom vanity.  She is guarding it ferociously.  Not sure what I'm going to do when it hatches out though! Let loose a cloud of fruit flies?   Very cool spiders.


----------



## rm90 (Jul 3, 2007)

Why is the boy crying in the last picture? Lol. 
EDIT: Oh, was he crying because it was dying?


----------



## Joanne (Jul 22, 2007)

IdahoBiteyThing said:


> Glad I found this thread; I have a female Phiddipus somethingorotherus that has made a beautiful egg sac right above my bathroom vanity.  She is guarding it ferociously.  Not sure what I'm going to do when it hatches out though! Let loose a cloud of fruit flies?   Very cool spiders.


You have one too?   Lol - I like that ...... Phiddupis somethingorotherus...... ha ha! 
  Sorry it took me so long to respond - I was away on holidays for 2 1/2 weeks, then came home to a crashed computer - just back online now with a new hard drive. Pain! 
 News though....... the babies have now hatched! I had her and hereggs babysat by an entomologist while I was away..... the babies hatched the day I got back home again! They are still hanging out within the inner layer of the eggsac, but I can see them running around in there. Mother stopped guarding them once they had hatched..... I didn't know if she would die, or what would happen..... well, she sure hasn't died - far from it. She's eating like a pig..... in the last 2 days, she has eaten 10 flies, 5 moths, 3 leafhoppers and 3 skippers....  still going strong! She visited the babies for a bit today.... went in there for a couple minutes and came out - not sure what she was up to. But....... I have a real strong feeling that she is fattening up in order to lay more eggs...... aaaaa!   
  I have 2 little homes ready to keep 2 babies.... will let the rest go outside on my virginia creeper vine, where there are millions of tiny variety of leafhoppers awaiting being eaten by some baby spiders.  
  Maybe you could move the eggsac outside once they hatch..... they stay inside there after hatching for about a week or so, living on their yolks from their eggs (they don't eat yet). I've been doing some research and talking to a very nice entomologist.   He said I could safely move the eggsac full of hatched babies if I want. I'm just going to leave them in place till they come out though since they are contained in the tank. I'll just remove the lid and let them jump out at their leisure. 
  Let us know what happens with yours!! Any pics? Is she guarding the eggs still? Apparently, they guard them, but may die before they hatch, or may live till after they hatch, or may even lay more eggs after they hatch since they store the sperm from the male they met previously and fertilize them themselves whenever they want. 
 
Joanne

Reactions: Helpful 1


----------



## Joanne (Jul 22, 2007)

Ryan Maguire said:


> Why is the boy crying in the last picture? Lol.
> EDIT: Oh, was he crying because it was dying?


  Yep - he was crying because his moth was dying.... life lesson though! And now we will have to go through his little jumping spider dying.... but at least we're keeping a couple babies. 
 
Joanne


----------

