# Wood louse Hunter Spider (Dysdera crocata)



## cvonrosen (Sep 29, 2005)

Wood louse Hunter Spider (Dysdera crocata)  
Is a fairly common spider to the US. It is a fun captive and eats roli poli bugs. It has large fangs for penetrating the hard exoskeleton of the roli polies. I keep them in a deli cup with 1" of coconut fiber and they make little sak burrows. I feed them freshly molted roli polis which I keep in a conainer with moist dirt and a bunch of lettuce and leaves. One I see a "white" bug I just put them in the Wood Louse Hunters cage and it goes at it.


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## NRF (Sep 30, 2005)

Did you kill it to take the photo??


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## cacoseraph (Sep 30, 2005)

NRF said:
			
		

> Did you kill it to take the photo??


it doesn't look too dead to me.  in my experience these spiders are pretty cowardly, so it might be freezing and trying to hide 

i've said it before and i'll say it again... try to get one to through a threat display... it is the cutest funniest thing in the world


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## NickS1004 (Sep 30, 2005)

my experience with these guys is that they are VERY delicate, their abdomens are more prone to rupture than any spider i can think of..

in my basement there are tons of dead ones along the floor next to the wall, they climb up the wall, fall, and die when they hit the ground. Make sure you keep them so that they cant fall too far.


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## Peter_Parker (Sep 30, 2005)

They look almost like a hybrid between an araneomorph and a mygalomorph... cool!


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## cvonrosen (Oct 1, 2005)

No. It was very very alive lol. They are very prone to rupture there abdomens so make sure there is only about an inch of space to the top of the container. They are real neat spiders to keep. If anyones interested I have some for sale. Just go to my site which is on my signature.


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## Nick G (Sep 20, 2006)

*Dysderids*

They are also beneficial critters, and indeed they are common.Population explosions of pill bugs do occur.I've caught D.Crocata but have never witnessed one preying on a sow bug.If I'm not mistaken, these spiders are pretty much hairless too.


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## Jonathan (Sep 21, 2006)

Hi,
I believe that I also have one of these.  Does anyone know what the eggsacs look like?
Thanks!
Jon


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## cacoseraph (Sep 21, 2006)

Jonathan said:


> Hi,
> I believe that I also have one of these.  Does anyone know what the eggsacs look like?
> Thanks!
> Jon


the female spins a smallish chamber to live in with the eggsac. the eggsac itself is almost transparent if i remember correctly. the babies are this cute orangey color and look kind of translucent


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## Jonathan (Sep 21, 2006)

Hi,
I was curious because there was this disc shaped object on the side of the container she is currently housed in, and she built her little retreat next to it.  Ill get a photo of it after work.  I don't know what it is.
Jon


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## cacoseraph (Sep 21, 2006)

Jonathan said:


> Hi,
> I was curious because there was this disc shaped object on the side of the container she is currently housed in, and she built her little retreat next to it.  Ill get a photo of it after work.  I don't know what it is.
> Jon


there could be more than the way that i have seen. i've only seen one female with an eggchamber in the wild and one in one of my pets. but that was the only two times i've seen females with eggs, too


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## Jonathan (Sep 22, 2006)

Hi,
This is what I was speaking of:

























In the first one, you can see her little silken retreat she built.  She was normally sleeping in the top of the container.  After she built the sac, she began sleeping next to it.  Weird, huh?

Jon

Sweet, my photo's didn't upload.


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## Jonathan (Sep 22, 2006)

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f150/powder417/IMG_0765.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f150/powder417/IMG_0764.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f150/powder417/IMG_0763.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f150/powder417/IMG_0762.jpg


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## cacoseraph (Sep 22, 2006)

no clue what that is, sorry


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## Jonathan (Sep 22, 2006)

Hi,
I think its an eggsac.  It is seen better from the inside.  I didn't want to disturb it too much, but from the inside, it looks like a little dome.  She even went so far as to camoflage it w/ substrate.  I am wondering now if the spider is some type of gnaphosidae, because some of them build disc-shaped eggsac's.  I wonder how she got it all to stay on the side of the deli cup w/ out falling down.  Just thought it was odd and should share!
Jon


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## LongDucDong (Sep 25, 2006)

Ive kept a few of these before and loved keeping them. Theyre not aggressive, and are not that fast either. They make little sacs they hide in and do feed aggressively on pill bugs/roly poly/sow bugs. I used to have a HUGE population of sow bugs outside our old apartment and would find _D. crocata _under the rocks with them all the time. These spiders have gigantor fangs that look wicked when fully extended.


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## Tegenaria (Sep 27, 2006)

Thts a handsome spider, and I believe theyre found in the UK too?


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## Bug master (Jul 7, 2019)

cvonrosen said:


> Wood louse Hunter Spider (Dysdera crocata)
> Is a fairly common spider to the US. It is a fun captive and eats roli poli bugs. It has large fangs for penetrating the hard exoskeleton of the roli polies. I keep them in a deli cup with 1" of coconut fiber and they make little sak burrows. I feed them freshly molted roli polis which I keep in a conainer with moist dirt and a bunch of lettuce and leaves. One I see a "white" bug I just put them in the Wood Louse Hunters cage and it goes at it.


Hi Ik that this is a veryyy old post but I am wondering if you actually have any?


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