# Dolomedes Tenebrosus



## Crysta (May 19, 2010)

Hmm, so I got off my bum and went and collected some fishing spiders.

I had a male for a week, he had sperm carriers on his palps, he seemed mature to me. Then he molted again so I am assuming this will be his last molt. He went from .8 inch to 1.3 inches.

I just never knew male spiders molted after they acquired the sperm carriers! hehe learn something new everyday. 

Here is the female I collected, abit small, so I will be going out to look for a bigger, and actually mature female. She is 2 inches long...really small. Usually females are ready around 3 to 3.5 inches. I think she should be ready to mate in 1 1/2 month to 2 month range. 

heres some pictures!
Oh the male looked a lot like the female before the molt, but with swollen palps. I wish I took  a picture then haha. The only one I have is a crappy one of him feeding.

before molt






molt






after molt, he's still a bit translucent here. 






heres the female












thanks for reading!


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## Moltar (May 19, 2010)

Awesome species and great pics too. This is a fun species of true to keep. 

I caught a gravid female a few miles from my home last year. She produced two sacs which I allowed to hatch and released into a marshland near my house. It was a newly created habitat (construction) so I figured it could use some predators. The nursery webs they make are so cool!


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## Malhavoc's (May 19, 2010)

Actualy most true spiders I deal with, have the mature palps before maturity but at that size it does sound mature ish, they are wonderful specimens quite personality inspired little buggers. I hope you enjoy them


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## Crysta (May 19, 2010)

hehe yeah they are very beautiful! Ill be shipping her out to someone after I mate her, he wants to give a go at rearing the young. I've done it before, but mannn I hate fruit flies, and springtails lol...

really malhavoc? awesome! That's something I never knew, I always went out and just caught a male I found and 'threw' it to the female ahhaha


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## Malhavoc's (May 19, 2010)

The species I know that have the enlarged bulbs prior to molts are:
The typical grass spider
The little theridea *Spelling) cobweb spiders.
 Fishingnurse web spiders.
and most local of wolf spider roun' here.

Nice to see another prominant canadian. seen you poppin up all over the boards.

A good way to tell maturity is initial responses to female just keep an eye on it they will begin to court very quickly-and as far as rearing, if I recall correctly these species have the mothering habbits of a Nursery web spider, so not sure you will want to seperate them till 2i or 3i


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## Crysta (May 19, 2010)

*pop*

I see you everywhere too haha. 

Hmm, I guess I need to keep more true spiders  I will be waiting till I get to vancouver for that though. Get myself more tarantulas and centipedes too. I am also considering getting Tribolonotus Gracilis very beautiful dragon like appearence. 

Yep, you can really tell when females are ready. ( I keep the males beside her enclosure, poor guys always gettin' a view. haha I have two males incase once turns into dinner haha)

Yep they do, these guys carry the sack inside their mouths for about four weeks. They actually hunt and drink water (well my last one did). You can keep them together until about 3 instar, they will kill prey that gets caught in the web and will eat it together, but after that they will disperese.....through every hole! lol. It amuses me that the mother is overly protective of the instars when they hatch, I have a scare from opening her container during that period.. oow. 
thanks for all the info!


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## TheTyro (May 19, 2010)

The males have the cutest little faces. I always find it amusing that the females get the ferocious end of the stick, while the boys look like kittens. 

Great photos!


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## Widowman10 (May 19, 2010)

in some species, you can tell the males apart because of the enlarged palps. in widows, the palps will be swollen in the antepenultimate stage, get bigger in the penultimate stage, and then be ready for breeding and loading in the ultimate stage. 

so, just 'cause you see enlarged palps, it doesn't necessarily mean it's mature. many times- yes, always- no.


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## Crysta (May 19, 2010)

Widowman10 said:


> in some species, you can tell the males apart because of the enlarged palps. in widows, the palps will be swollen in the antepenultimate stage, get bigger in the penultimate stage, and then be ready for breeding and loading in the ultimate stage.
> 
> so, just 'cause you see enlarged palps, it doesn't necessarily mean it's mature. many times- yes, always- no.


 They just can't wait to show them off, can they?
Hmm I don't think I will be keeping widows, ill admit they are cool, I just like bigger spiders that don't make webs. 
well... maybe I like avicularia.. but... that doesn't count! lol


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## Malhavoc's (May 19, 2010)

fairly certian whipping it out for all to see how big it is starts long before they can usei t, and is deffiantly a trait between many..many..species upon this globe.

Speaking of big spiders that don't make webs, tried any of the larger lycosea?

or whats that one, the origional 'tarantella' sp. God my books are so out of date I wont even begin to see how many times the latin names have changed...

btw on topic, do you collect them literarly on the water? do you offer any water for hunting? mosto f mie I find under bark on fallen trees near the local river rather then actualy in or on the water.

Ps widowman is correct widows can be very fascinating aswell.


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## Crysta (May 19, 2010)

I would love to keep some of the larger lycosea but I havn't got my hands on them yet. I've found some wild ones up in europe that where 'monsters' in my eyes. ahha  this one below was about 4 inches, gravid maybe? wolfies are amazing. haha
Its amazing how docile these spiders are !! 







for the dolomedes it it would be so challenging trying to catch them on the water haha..or in the water...

But, ironically, we have them living in our shed far away from any surrounding water. lol I think they like the abundance of insects, and because I live near the woods.

I used to keep them setup in the following.






but I don't have that kind of room anymore and they are perfectly content with the following setup:

Female on the left and the two males on the right. 






I love recycling containers 

----

Like 10 minutes later - i went outside and found this sexy girl!!! and you know whats funny? she took over the territory of the one I captured above hahaha
she is almost exactly 3 inches, missing a few millimeters. Looks like she just woke up (probably was up and goin around april) lol  so Ill feed her for a week and see if she molts. 
I released the smaller one outside that I have in pictures above and put the big girl in the same container. such an epic difference lol.


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## Malhavoc's (May 19, 2010)

They are devilishly fun spiders sounds about the same as the ones I catch roun' here minus ours dont do well with human contamination I can only collect from a spot once a month if that they scatter and awal it quite fragil so I captive breed most of mine.

I actualy just got back from a three month stay in europe, and you are right, some absolute beauties there, and if not the locals the market is f'ing nice


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## Crysta (May 20, 2010)

what do you mean by human contamination? like human presence?

These ones here seem to do okay, probably because we have wooded area surrounding us. They enjoy our garages, and my neighbors pool room. Also I mentioned finding the last one in the shed. 
what part of Europe did you go to? I was in Croatia


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## loxoscelesfear (May 20, 2010)

figure a place would have to be pretty darn contaminated/polluted to keep Dolomedes away.  Have found fishers in the middle of populated areas many times.


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## ErikWestblom (May 20, 2010)

Like a month ago I found a small Dolomedes fimbriatus male on the wall of my parents living room, like 2 miles from nearest lake... THAT was a surprise  I have no idea at all how it could end up there...


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## Malhavoc's (May 20, 2010)

CentipedeFreak said:


> what do you mean by human contamination? like human presence?
> 
> These ones here seem to do okay, probably because we have wooded area surrounding us. They enjoy our garages, and my neighbors pool room. Also I mentioned finding the last one in the shed.
> what part of Europe did you go to? I was in Croatia


I was in Germany, both west and east sides, Also visited poland and turky I believe, 

and yeah human presance, I find the more visited by hikers and general people, the less likely they ae to be there, if I intrude upon a 'nesting' area I find their presence to be very limited for up to a month afterword without visiting.


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## Roski (May 20, 2010)

Good luck with the pairing!  They're a beautiful species- I only have a juvenile female right now, but she is getting some size (she really grew with the last molt)! 

They sure do like the swimming pool sheds... Also just about all over any crevice (beneath a barbeque, once!) that's in a backyard near a lake and some woods. You've inspired me to go bug hunting after work. Heh.


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## Moltar (May 20, 2010)

We get those at my Dad's place a lot. Unfortunately I usually find them at the bottom of the pool...


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## Crysta (May 20, 2010)

haha erik that must of been a treat xD!

Hmm that's weird malhovoc usually the dolomedes territory once I remove it gets replaced the next day either by a larger, or smaller specimen. The ones I collect must be pretty mean to the others to keep them away! lol

Roski, don't forget to brumate her in the winter! They don't turn into giants if you don't do that, and die off sooner. 

Ohh sorry, I meant the game 'pool' ... 8 ball, etc. lol

Ah that's sad Moltar... I keep feel the spiders excitment when she finally finds a body of water...and then she's on the water and chokes of chlorines  or eats a chlorine bug floaty...


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## GiantVinegaroon (May 22, 2010)

I just found a pair today.  A very fat female and a very large male.  I let the female be since I haven't seen many D. tenebrosus in the area and it looked gravid, but I took the male to pair with my female.


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## Crysta (May 22, 2010)

haha awesome! can you put the female in a plastic ziplock bag and put her against the ruler to measure her like i did in the first page pictures ? i'd like to see her size  
good luck with the male


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## Violet (May 23, 2010)

CentipedeFreak said:


> Roski, don't forget to brumate her in the winter...


How is this done, may I ask?


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## Malhavoc's (May 23, 2010)

you take the spider and often let it winter in your garage or some place cool. where the spider wil lfall into a dormant period, this is important for spiders with such short life spans it can lenghen it from 8 months to near two years depending on the temps you keep them


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## Crysta (May 23, 2010)

just as Malhovic said. But I would put it in a little but of larger container with some layers of wood insted of a one wood peice setup so she can get comfy. lol


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## Violet (May 23, 2010)

Malhavoc's said:


> you take the spider and often let it winter in your garage or some place cool. where the spider wil lfall into a dormant period, this is important for spiders with such short life spans it can lenghen it from 8 months to near two years depending on the temps you keep them


Thanks for that! 

Would this be for the whole of winter?


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## Crysta (May 24, 2010)

I'd leave it in there till you see your first wild spider in april-march-may depending where you live.


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## GiantVinegaroon (May 24, 2010)

CentipedeFreak said:


> haha awesome! can you put the female in a plastic ziplock bag and put her against the ruler to measure her like i did in the first page pictures ? i'd like to see her size
> good luck with the male


I'm gonna move her to a larger container once I decide if coca bark would be ok or not lol.  You should see this male though, he is very very big.  I'm no Dolomedes expert, so perhaps the one I introduced before was not mature....but this one definitely should be.

By the way, I haven't brumated her, and I've had her since August 2009, and she is still eating regularly.


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## Crysta (May 24, 2010)

that's because she's still young, and growing, but once they hit ready to breed stage they don't get as big as the wild ladies.


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## GiantVinegaroon (May 24, 2010)

CentipedeFreak said:


> that's because she's still young, and growing, but once they hit ready to breed stage they don't get as big as the wild ladies.


Well she better be in the breeding stage lol.  The female I found was about her size, or slightly smaller, and very fat.


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