# Jumping Spider Communal Project



## Godzirra (Jan 25, 2009)

okay, i just called my husband requesting he grab a fish tank from walmart (i have a lid), because i want to set up a communal made up of 3 jumping spiders (which are pretty big)

3 of these







Though i need help figuring out how to tell the difference between male and female. Reading a lot of the information out there confuses and overwhelms me.
If i post pictures, would anyone be able to help in identification
I will post pictures of the communal when it is done on here, and share updates of setup.


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## Draiman (Jan 25, 2009)

Hmm...Interesting. At the moment, I have a male-female pair of _Plexippus paykulli_ in a container together, and they're doing fine. However, I highly doubt _three_ would work. Two males would attempt to kill each other, and so would two females. You may want to try a male-female pair instead of a suicidal trio. As for sexing - jumping spiders are highly sexually dimorphic. Also, males have conspicuously swollen pedipalps. The spider in the picture you posted looks like a female _Phidippus_ sp. to me.


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## deathwing (Jan 25, 2009)

Some jumpers are cannibalistic, some eats other jumpers so I think you should look over them for a while.

For the more knowledgeable ones. - What was that term refering to spiders that eat other spiders anyway?


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## Godzirra (Jan 25, 2009)

ahh, crap - what would be the reasons they would eat each other - i assumed that females would be better with females.
I mean, i'm hoping to cover 
- Feed enough
- Lots of hiding spaces and large space

My strategy was to place the containers they are in, inside of the tank (after tank is setup the way i wanted it)   as an introduction, for a while - since they have all webbed in their containers and know the area.

Their enclosures are kept  side by side, and so they already have that introduction phase (as in it won't be too much of a surprise to see a lot of movement that is not prey).


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## Godzirra (Jan 25, 2009)

I put the 3 largest ones together, i tried to create boundaries if you'd like to say with Plexiglass & plants.
Then i threw in 4 crickets.
No problem transferring them, one of them is still in it's original leaf, will wake up to a surprise.
The one i placed on the left side of the tank, has already gone to the other side out of curiosity, and then went back to it's side after seeing the other one. Now both are webbing up on the original sides i placed them in.


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## GiantVinegaroon (Jan 25, 2009)

deathwing said:


> Some jumpers are cannibalistic, some eats other jumpers so I think you should look over them for a while.
> 
> For the more knowledgeable ones. - *What was that term refering to spiders that eat other spiders anyway?*


canniballistic?


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## syndicate (Jan 25, 2009)

I believe alot of the Salticids are very territorial so you may very well end up with one fat little jumper!
Males and females can often look like completely different species displaying strong sexual dimorphism.Where was this species collected?Its hard trying to ID these sometimes.Makes notes of your observations and share them with us.
-Chris


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## Godzirra (Jan 26, 2009)

syndicate said:


> I believe alot of the Salticids are very territorial so you may very well end up with one fat little jumper!
> Males and females can often look like completely different species displaying strong sexual dimorphism.Where was this species collected?Its hard trying to ID these sometimes.Makes notes of your observations and share them with us.
> -Chris


I ordered them from brachy.P on here - i think he's from Florida
i do believe these are Phidippus regius

pps, i woke up this morning and they are pretty much mirroring the same exact pose, angle and sides they are chillaxing on.
the other one is still in it's leaf (it's the shy one)...and i will write log of anything special


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## ThomasH (Jan 26, 2009)

If they all reside on different sides that is cohabitation not communalism. There is a difference. If you would like to try true communalism get a smaller enclosure to confine them closer together. That will either force them to kill each other which they will most likely do or actually be communal.
TBH


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## Godzirra (Jan 26, 2009)

BoaConstrictor said:


> If they all reside on different sides that is cohabitation not communalism. There is a difference. If you would like to try true communalism get a smaller enclosure to confine them closer together. That will either force them to kill each other which they will most likely do or actually be communal.
> TBH


ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that's cool to know, i actually didn't know the difference. It was ignorance on my behalf because i saw plentiful other people use the term and just assumed it was one of those words that people used for various meaning. I feel silly though because it's such a huge difference lol


I think i will be using the term cohabitation from now on.


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## Kris-wIth-a-K (Jan 26, 2009)

Are those the ones I sent you!!!??  To be honest I tried that once with the white and black ones you have and it didn't work out too well. From my experience they tend to be aggressive towards each other even if give the right amount of space and food.


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## Neuroticax (Jan 26, 2009)

Interesting. 

I was thinking about doing the same idea this summer.

Hope it goes well!


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## Motzo (Jan 26, 2009)

Godzirra said:


> I ordered them from brachy.P on here - i think he's from Florida
> i do believe these are Phidippus regius
> 
> pps, i woke up this morning and they are pretty much mirroring the same exact pose, angle and sides they are chillaxing on.
> the other one is still in it's leaf (it's the shy one)...and i will write log of anything special


Don't P.Regius have red markings rather than white?
The spiders in the pictures seem like P.Audax to me. Of course, I see P.Audax in _everything._

I think they would eventually eat each-other. It seems too small of a space for three adults.


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## Kris-wIth-a-K (Jan 26, 2009)

Not really but some have the vague markings.   We have ALL kinds of 
P. Regius and P. Audax here of all colors.    I'm almost positive I sent her a P. Audax as well as some P. Regius.  Here is my little girl.. She ate two males before breeding.  I personally wouldn't try to do a communal unless you have a lot of stock.







Kris


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## Motzo (Jan 26, 2009)

Hmm, there's not much diversity in color where I live.
Heck, I've yet to see a real-life P.Regius. >.<


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## Kris-wIth-a-K (Jan 26, 2009)

Would you like some 8).  I will give you the same deal I gave Godzirra..

Kris


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## Malhavoc's (Jan 27, 2009)

Communal. I did this once. with about 10 "zebra jumping spiders" local to well. Everywhere. small little 1cm jumpers. Abundent. (10 per 2l bottle) fed once a week with 12 flies. One each. it was very intresting to watch. Cannabilism Ofc. did occur- 
I believe at the end of the summer I had suffered 3 casualties. two sparing males and one smaller female. but the rest cohabitated with very intresting (and fun to watch) visual and Audio interaction of 
"hey this is my fly" 
"my bottle!" 
 "your sexy!" etc. 

Each species however- Even so far as each local- will spawn different behavioral tendancies in the arachnids- but with the zebra jumpers- they were much less likely to canabilize perfering visual shovanistic behavior and intimidation to any striking.

It takes about. 1/3 size of jumper body size over another to incite prey tendancies rather then Intimidation (According to my various Observations of them in enclosures at least.) however! the larger the jumper- the more inclined to hunt and kill others rather then cohabitate 

 going on that size jumper. which is about equivilant to the black Regals here (I think about 2cm body lengh) the same bottle enclosure could only house two females- to whom would stay far apart. or one female one male. (and loved to eat the zebras :/)


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## deathwing (Jan 27, 2009)

LordLycosa said:


> canniballistic?


nope not that one. Oh well nevermind...


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## Godzirra (Jan 27, 2009)

Just an fyi, video will be coming soon - clips of them interacting/ crossing paths and what i believe to be intimidating one another (acting like gorillas).

And an update, i will get a lot of "I told you so",


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## lhystrix (Jan 27, 2009)

That is antagonistic behavior. Except for mating, or if one is trying to capture and eat another, regius want nothing to do with each other.

The only time regius cohabit is when an adult male finds the sac of a sated subadult female. He will build a sac on top of her sac, and then mate a day or two after her final molt. Depending on the point of satiation, cohabition may last several days to a over a week.

Unfortunately there are no truly social spiders in NA, and regius will not hesitate to prey on each other, other phids, and other spiders. The good thing is regius of equal size generally threaten each other and run off, but sometimes the result is worse.

Any images of the black and yellow one yet? If it is otiosus, it probably won't last long with your regius. Large adult female regius are on top of the jumping spider food chain throughout their range.


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## ZergFront (May 30, 2009)

*Kind of Neat..*

Wow, that was gutsy. I would have NEVER made an attempt at a communal or cohab of my Phids. Hell, if I do get a mating pair I'm not leaving them unsupervised until they start sharing the nest for the "honeymoon." 

 Closest my two girls have ever gotten together was Itsy crawling all over Bitsy's jar. Bitsy fallowed her movements the WHOLE time. I got a dozen glass vials for the slings.


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