# Huntsman Spider (Heterapoda venatoria) breeding



## HairyCelt (May 29, 2012)

Having acquired a lovely pair of H.venatoria from TSS the other week, I decided to attempt to breed them. In the week running up to breeding, the female was well fed on crickets and locusts. The mae ate once but, other than one small cricket, had lost all interest in food.

After introducing the male into the female's enclosure there was a 30 second stand-off while both parties took stock of the situation. The male started vibrating his abdomen. This continued for no more than 30 seconds prior to his drumming very loudly with his pedipalps.

Rapid vibration of legs 1 and 2 on one side of his body, then the other side of his body followed. This was repeated several times with the occasional body shake. Then a more insistent drumming with the pedipalps.

The female visibly tensed then relaxed in a way I’ve not seen before – difficult to describe. Without wanting to anthropomorphise, she seemed to become hypnotised, almost an alpha wave state.

The next phase was something I’d not expected in the least (my experience has been with tarantulas and face-to-face mating, not araenomorphs) – the male darted down below the female (which was in typical head-down position) and then ran up over her so his head was pointing up above her abdomen.

He then caressed her with leg pairs 1 and 3 before grasping her with these same legs. His head moved to the left of her abdomen and he reached around her pedicel with both palps probing for the genital operculum. When he was close he used leg one on the opposite side of her to squeeze tight, both pushing his embolus into her while lifting her up to facilitate entry. The entire manoeuvre was repeated on the other side.

This process was repeated over and over, spending about 10 seconds on each side.

After around 20 minutes the female started reaching down to her operculum with her palps and then up to her mouthparts, presumably checking for successful insemination(?). When she did this the male tapped between the femur of her leg 4 and her abdomen which stopped her “tasting”. (Does this stimulate some sort of endorphin response in the female?)

Unfortunately I had to leave the proceedings after about an hour and a half and when I returned she was enjoying a large, protein-rich meal which should help the development of her egg-sack.

Few pics:

Reactions: Like 7


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## The Snark (May 30, 2012)

Forgive me for asking but, could you please contact the two pictured protagonists and request them to repeat their endeavor while you capture the entire event in high resolution video?


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## HairyCelt (Jun 6, 2012)

I've contacted both their agents for permission, but unfortunately the male's no longer in the spider porn business due to his being eaten.


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## HairyCelt (Aug 7, 2012)

Just a quick update:

A rough timetable of events:
23 May Mated. Female ate male.
26 May Took medium field cricket
29 May Took adult female field cricket which was heavy with eggs
29 May  Created egg sack overnight
12 June Light spraying to moisten substrate
20 June Light spraying to moisten substrate
01 July Fully formed slings visible moving within sack
02 July Egg sack open. Several slings on outside of sack. (Attached photographs were taken at this time)
03 - 05 July More slings out of sack but no signs of dispersal.
06 July Many of the slings have dispersed throughout enclosure. Still showing signs of communal behaviour - some still touching each other. Those that have moved furthest from the female seem to have spaced themselves one full legspan away from each neighbour. Approximately 50 - 70 hatchling field crickets added to enclosure.
 Largely ignored by the majority of slings, though a few fell on the prey with relish. I suspect this will increase their prey drive and incidents of cannibalism will increase exponentially.
The spider room temperature varies between 72 and 77F and has an ambient relative humidity of between 50 and 60%. (The animal's enclosure is sprayed every 7 - 10 days, lightly moistening the substrate (3" coir) which is allowed almost to dry out completely between spraying - enclosure humidity unknown but > 50 - 60%).
They young are absolutely delightful and staggeringly quick.
14 July Egg sack abandoned - all young hatched. Another 50 - 70 hatchling crickets added. No real sign of predation from the slings, though the female took quite a lot of these tiny prey items. Didn't think she'd bother with something so small.
25 July Female took one adult male cricket. Approximately 50% of slings lost to cannibalism (expected and desired)
28 July Female took one large, gravid female cricket.

05 August A second egg sack produced! Unexpected - didn't know they could double-clutch.

Reactions: Like 2


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## oldmanofthesea (Aug 7, 2012)

Great post and pictures. Thanks and good luck. Ron


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## zonbonzovi (Aug 7, 2012)

Thanks for the timeline & photos!


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