# Stacey's Web Development Co.



## Ah Lee (Dec 22, 2020)

*Welcome to Stacey's web development company.*

We specialise in the development of websites, which may or may not be in the position you want, may or may not be the design you want, and may or may not be the color you want. What we can promise, is that your website will be bug-free. Bugs are promptly removed, as long as you keep providing them.




Our founder and CEO, Stacey has sadly left us on 17th December 2020. She will always be remembered for her fervent dedication to removing bugs from the system, and her artistic flair in painting the office walls white. You can read more about her story here:




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						Stacey the golden-web spider (Nephila Pilipes)
					

This is Stacey.  She is a Nephila Pilipes that I bumped into while on a jog 2 months ago. I've seen many before, but she is the youngest I have ever seen in the wild. She had just built a web when a lumbering fat man (me) crashed into it, and she ended up on my hair. So I decided to bring her...



					arachnoboards.com
				




*Introducing Pepper*




Shortly after the funeral, a young, eager worker has stepped up to take over the reins of our beloved CEO. She is a Nephila Kuhlii, and is just a bit larger than my thumbnail, just a bit larger than Stacey was when she founded the company. One thing I noticed about the Nephila kuhlii I have handled though, is that they are FAST. Unlike their pilipes cousins, they run across my hand with a speed you wouldn't expect from an orbweaver. They also seem much more prone to dropping from my hand with a bungee cord, and subsequently escaping. This vast difference in temperament is quite interesting, because there are people who think that the N.kuhlii is a color morph of the N.pilipes.

In any case, our young CEO ran up the canopy and almost immediately started work. This was the fastest I have ever seen a new spider settle in. Within a few hours, a new web(site) was up. Talk about enthusiasm!




The web was huge for such a tiny spider, measuring about 1.2m across. It was a perfectly symmetrical orbweb, unlike the asymmetrical ones they spin as adults. It was exactly where Stacey's old web was, which gives me a little comfort because I'm so used to looking in the corner and saying 'Morning Stacey' everyday. She was rewarded with a dragonfly, then 2, and then 3. And then she molted. Within the same day as her last meal. Things happen so quickly with these little ones!




Here she is in all her freshly-molted glory. I love how she has yellow tarsi which contrast so nicely with her red femur and tibia. I think this will be lost as she gets older, but we'll see! You can also see how much she's grown in one molt, that's just before she started taking down that old skin.

In the next post I'll introduce our Chief Web Designer. She's an amazing little critter, but it's quite hard to take a photo of her cause she's so shy. Till tomorrow!

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## Aline (Dec 22, 2020)

I'm eager to follow Pepper's tale! How big are the dragonflies you feed her, if she is so tiny?


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## Ah Lee (Dec 22, 2020)

Aline said:


> I'm eager to follow Pepper's tale! How big are the dragonflies you feed her, if she is so tiny?


It's uncanny, but the answer is bite-sized dragonflies!




The day I buried Stacey, the large, juicy dragonfly swarm had largely disappeared. Instead, these little dragonflies started appearing everywhere. They didn't swarm lije the large ones, but the grass patch was full of them.

It's strange huh, that little patch of nature always seems to provide exactly what I need!

Small as they are, they still have one hell of a flutter. So i usually shake 'em up in the container a bit to knock them out before throwing them in the web. They still struggle sometimes, but not enough to damage the web much.

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## KeGathings17 (Dec 22, 2020)

Dang, it's too bad about stacey, I really liked that thread, and she was quite the specimen. She's up there spinning the gold web in the sky now. Can't wait to see the direction Pepper takes the company!

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## Ah Lee (Dec 24, 2020)

*Introducing our chief web designer*




This is Skittles. She is a *Nephilengys malabarensis*.

If you think her name sounds close to Nephila, you are right! They are closely-related. Cousins, if you will. We named her Skittles because she's a really shy, skittish thing, and makes a really cute scuttling sound when she runs into her styrofoam hide. The longer I keep her, the more I find really amazing stuff about her, she really is such a special spider I do not know why her species isn't that well-known. In this post, I'll share some of that with y'all!

She is nowhere as big as her Nephila cousins, but still large for an orbweaver. Her carapace is a shiny grey, and abdomen a beautiful, mottled yellow-brown combo.




She has bright red markings on her sternum and underside of her abdomen, quite similar to a black widow, but without the venom!

*Job of the chief web designer*

Where Skittles really shines, is at web-building. That's why she's our chief web designer. Because she builds *3 different kinds of webs all in one.*




*First web: Tube web*
When we first released her into the Exoterra, she found a safe retreat behind the styrofoam background, where there is a tiny gap for wires to go through. There she built a long tube web that extends down the gap. She hides there when she's frightened.

*Second web: Tangle web*
Over the course of the next few days, she will come out at night and build a lattice of webs which extends all the way to the front edge of the tank. It's a tangle-web, much like a tent web spider or a black widow. When she doesn't feel that safe (like when the light is on), she tends to hang around there. She also brings prey there to eat, and builds her eggsac there. She can move really swiftly through that mess, but I guess any potential predators will get hindered by the lattice. That's the second web.

*Third web: Orb web*
Another couple of days later, and she built her orbweb. It is a fine, delicate orbweb with the hub nearer to the top, similar to Nephilas. She hangs out at the top of the orb at night, and sometimes still stays there even when we switch on the lights.

In the wild, it was much larger. About a metre in width and 2 metres tall. It was anchored by 2 strong vertical lines, giving it a waterfall look.




Skittles is easily the most hardworking spider in the company. Her web is almost always perfect. Her orbweb is the one that catches food, so it gets damaged often. Whenever she feels it's getting ratty, she eats it and rebuilds. The lattice web lasts much longer, but over time webs start to clump together to form white wisps, and butterfly scales stain it. She will then also take it down and rebuild it at night. What's interesting is that she only rebuilds either the lattice web or the orbweb at once, never both at the same time. We have never seen her tube web since, but knowing her, it's pristine. Her work is immaculate, her web is almost always invisible, unlike Nephilas.

*Babies!*

One of the best things to happen at Stacey's Web Development Co. is Skittle's eggsac. An interesting note is that males break off their pedipalps into females after mating, in an effort to prevent other males from mating with her as well. I never noticed if Skittles had a mating plug in her when I brought her home a few months back, but let's hope this eggsac is not a dud.




Interestingly, her eggsac is made of a lightly golden silk, as compared to the white she uses for her webs. After building the sac, she goes down to pick up wood chips to coat the eggsac with. It's really cool to see! You can see the remnants of the wood chips in the web photo.

But the most incredible thing about her eggsac, is it's *strength*. I am no stranger to the strength of spider webs, but this is bordering on ridiculous. The wooden stick I was using broke. I tried pulling it off with forceps but it felt like I was trying to tear a T-shirt in half. It was so mind-boggling I did some Googling and learnt that the toughest recorded eggsac ever in a spider belongs to a Nephilengys cruentata. Go figure!

So there you have it, the hardest worker in the company. And one with lots of incredible skills. She is just pretty hard to photograph because she was really shy, and her tank is usually humid and has water stains from all the misting. She's hanging around outside more now that we have moved our human stuff away from her so we disturb her less when we grab stuff, so hopefully we'll get more photos soon!

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## Ah Lee (Dec 25, 2020)

*Merry Christmas from all of us at Stacey's Web Dev. Co!*




Looks like the Christmas tree will be a permanent decor now, seeing as Pepper is using it as an anchor, the little rascal. She really loves that tree!




Over at the nursery, we have a beautiful surprise. Hundreds of Christmas babies! And yes, they are incubated on an old surgical mask, so the first thing they smell when they hatch is my terrible breath.

I've only had time to snap this before I left home for work, I'll try to get some nicer shots later when I'm home! Again, if anybody is interested in keeping this amazing species, hit me up! They are free to a good home, just pay for shipping

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## Ah Lee (Dec 26, 2020)

*Hello kids!*




This is as macro as I can get with my camera, and I can still just barely see them. They are TINY. Right now they are just huddling around each other fidgeting slightly every now and then. They'll probably start dispersing soon, then I'll transfer them to a mesh cage. I want them to have the best chance of survival, so I might raise them through 1 or 2 molts before releasing them. And of course I will keep a few!

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## Ah Lee (Dec 27, 2020)

*Pepper the fastidous*




Pepper has had a few bugs since she came, and I have to say, she is taking her job seriously! She patches holes as and when they appear, its not perfect and you can see the difference in the newly patched spot, but it gets the job done.

Yesterday, after a fight with a particularly large dragonfly, she completely ate her first web, and rebuilt it. You can see the lines are slightly thicker than her first one, and the characteristic manuscript paper look of a Nephila web!




I also installed a brighter, warmer daylight basking light for Pepper. It's an Exoterra Daylight Basking 100W, and at where Pepper is, it's just a gentle warmth. I had always been hesitant to do this with Stacey for fear it might dessicate her, but almost every Nephila I see in the wild has exposure to bright, direct sunlight, so I decided to give it a go. May be weird getting a basking light for a spider, but I still feel heat/light might be crucial to the well-being of this species.

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## Ah Lee (Jan 2, 2021)

*Pepper's 3rd molt*




Pepper molted today! And since I have the rare day off due to the New Year holidays, I had the pleasure of documenting the entire process. One word: fascinating! Also I'm lucky she's young, so it was all over in an hour, or I would have leg cramps perched on that stool taking photos.

*Pre-molt*




I first realised Pepper was going to molt when she her rear legs were locked straight, that's always the first sign of an impending molt. It's subtle but it's obvious to me. Her color now is a really dark red, and you can see how disproportionate her abdomen is to her carapace. Her last meal was about 24 hours ago.

*Pop goes the spider*




By the time I finished my pizza and came back, she was already halfway out. Interestingly, this time she molted without anchoring her feet to the web. I guess this is an alternative? Riskier possibly, because even when I closed the windows to prevent the wind from disturbing her, she was swaying a fair bit.

One really cool thing is that their exoskeletons are always translucent brown no matter what color the spider is. That means you can literally see her legs leaving the exoskeleton, the red slowly receding from her old shell. I honestly do not know how that happens. Does the old exoskeleton lose pigmentation before a molt? Nevertheless it's really cool to see.

*Almost there!*




Things got a little slower at the end, I guess she's tired because she's been pumping real hard the first half. You can see all the color has left her old exoskeleton.

*Ta-dah!*




I failed to see this part of the molt when Stacey molted last time, but this time I got it on camera! It's truly a marvel to behold as Pepper breaks free of her old shell and falls down in a stream of red and yellow. She spends a long time in this position, stretching and pumping fluids to her legs. Her growth is incredible.






*The I-did-it flex*




At a certain point after molting, Nephilas always do this strange flex where they curl all their legs up to their sternum. I do not know why, but when Pepper finally stretched all her legs out at the same time after the flex, she looked like a flower blooming. Beautiful!

*Post-molt*




Here she is in all her freshly-molted glory. I'm glad to see she has retained her yellow tarsi, I really think they are beautiful. Like Stacey, her growth during her juvenile days are explosive, I feed her every 2 days now but will probably slow it down to 3 days after this molt. For now I will leave her be, she'll soon start untangling her molt which I really like to watch, but I'm too tired for now.

*Skittles' babies update*

Skittles babies seem to be doing ok! To be honest I am worried because after a week, they are still huddling. The main mass of web is just full of exoskeletons and egg cases, and a small bunch have been separated but have made their own group and are huddled together too. I was so worried the main sac might be dead that I took a small cutter and very carefully sliced some webbing off. Lo and behold! Dozens of babies are just squirming about in the center, amongst a shell of exoskeletons. The disturbance caused them to scatter a bit, but very quickly they huddled back in the middle again. I guess that means they are still not ready. A part of me actually stupidly thought they might be stuck. Anyways they seem to have grown darker in color, and are a little more like spiders now. It's still too hard to get a photo of them, I'll probably get my camera tomorrow to take some macro shots.

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## The Snark (Jan 2, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> At a certain point after molting, Nephilas always do this strange flex where they curl all their legs up to their sternum.


I've observed this too and I'll venture a guess. It's hyper flexion, the opposite of hyper extension. Humans do this as a partially autonomic neurological trigger - stretching. Limbers up the muscles and aids in oxygen profusion to the cells. In spiders, especially ones with extremely long thin legs like nephs, this could also aid the musculature to evenly fill in the exoskeleton which would reduce the possibility of developing muscle 'knots'. Knots being hyper irritable spots in the facial tissues - myofacial trigger points. Again, purely guess work. A rheumatologist or orthopedist could help explain this.

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## Ah Lee (Jan 3, 2021)

The Snark said:


> I've observed this too and I'll venture a guess. It's hyper flexion, the opposite of hyper extension. Humans do this as a partially autonomic neurological trigger - stretching. Limbers up the muscles and aids in oxygen profusion to the cells. In spiders, especially ones with extremely long thin legs like nephs, this could also aid the musculature to evenly fill in the exoskeleton which would reduce the possibility of developing muscle 'knots'. Knots being hyper irritable spots in the facial tissues - myofacial trigger points. Again, purely guess work. A rheumatologist or orthopedist could help explain this.


That's a good guess. Seeing as she goes into full extension for a good long while and then into full flexion. My guess is that it is more to do with ensuring maximum range of motion in the joints before the exoskeleton hardens.

The whole process looks really risky though. Besides the obvious risk of predation, it looks like one good gust of wind could possibly foul up the whole process.


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## Ah Lee (Jan 3, 2021)

*Kids are doing fine!*




Of course they are, but that doesn't stop me worrying and checking on them first thing every morning. It's been a little over a week since they hatched now, and they have lost their yolk, and are starting to take on mommy's colors. The photo above is the small batch that got separated from the main group. They have started pulling a couple of lines, but are more or less still huddled together.




The main group is doing fine too. I'm always worried they might not be because of how black the mass is now, it looks like it has gone bad, but on closer inspection it is just the kids getting their color. What I am worried about is why they have not dispersed even after a good 9 days. I am hesitant to feed them now because if they are not ready to eat, the insect juice could go bad quickly and foul things up.

My plan for feeding is just to toss crickets in a tiny syringe, then proceed to press the plunger down slowly. Voila! Freshly-pressed cricket juice that I'll attempt to trickle evenly around. A mist bottle was my original idea, but I just feel that would make too much of a mess. But in any case, I am going to wait till tomorrow to see if they start dispersing.

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## The Snark (Jan 3, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> The whole process looks really risky though. Besides the obvious risk of predation, it looks like one good gust of wind could possibly foul up the whole process.


Predation is an ever present threat regardless. If you look closely at the thread she is hanging from when doing yoga, that's a guy line, not a flimsy orb line. New meaning to the phrase 'hang in there'. 
Cute kids.

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## Ah Lee (Jan 6, 2021)

*Well, crap.*




Skittles just laid another eggsac, this time in the far corner of the tank. She's really keeping me busy. Plan's the same for this one, but *if anyone wants the sac, please let me know*. Free to a good home, just take real good care of them!




Meanwhile the first batch exploded. I decided to cut a tiny slit in the mess of webbing holding them together, and poof! Within an hour they had scattered. Interesting though, I wonder if Mom helps them cut the sac in the wild. As far as I can see, everyone's healthy and really active. I estimate at least 200, and I'm just elated! I'll be feeding and then releasing the bulk of them tomorrow. I'll keep about 10, and once I can sex them, I'll pick my favorite one and release the rest too.

Any idea how early do orbweavers start showing signs of sexual dimorphism?

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## XxSpiderQueenxX (Jan 10, 2021)

Great journal, adorable spiders

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## The Snark (Jan 10, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> Any idea how early do orbweavers start showing signs of sexual dimorphism?


In general, second or third molt. Males only double or so in size. 
Wish I could offer my garden and the surrounding area few the extra / orphan slings.


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## Ah Lee (Jan 19, 2021)

The Snark said:


> In general, second or third molt. Males only double or so in size.
> Wish I could offer my garden and the surrounding area few the extra / orphan slings.


Well if you're hankering for any of these, I do have a 2nd eggsac coming up which I have no idea what to do with 

Babies have mostly molted at least once now, some are visibly larger than the others, but whether or not that is enough to tell their gender, I'm still not sure to be honest. Hopefully the males get their red coloration early on, that'll save me a lot of guesswork.


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## The Snark (Jan 19, 2021)

You should shortly be seeing two very different sizes. Males will simply stop growing. Fortunately predation among the young is virtually unheard of. Won't do any harm to allow the males to make themselves at home near to each other. When they make webs they will be pretty small at first. One or two inch across orbs. Very cute. Once mature they will often move into the perimeter of the females webs, often living their entire lives there. They are all obligatory web builders. No web, they die. Males will probably get by on fruit flies. Just leave a piece or two of rotting fruit out.They may try using the neighbors webs and food. I've seen 4 or 5 male webs sharing guy lines, right up against each other. Females love moths and are much more independent
Please note, this is all from observations in situ. If they do odd things I'd very much like to read about it.

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## Ah Lee (Jan 19, 2021)

*Pepper's new office*

Been more than a week since my last update, lots of excitement going on at Stacey's Web Development Co., but work has been so busy the last thing I wanted to do is spend more time on the computer. Today I have some time, so the first update is that Pepper has moved! She took down her web last week, ate the whole thing and begun the annoying tour of my room's ceiling. I had to move her once when I caught her trying to build an anchor line above my computers, and after that she started building a couple of anchor lines near her old web. She spent the next few days hanging out there with all her legs outstretched, Pepper and Stacey always do that, I don't know why. Maybe to observe prey availability or potential disturbances in the area? This is a completely wild theory, but like I mentioned before, every single web that Stacey and Pepper has built is out of the way of regular human traffic, as are 99% of webs I see in the wild. I think some kind of consideration is taken before a web is built, especially since Nephilas do not take their webs down regularly.

Anyways, I tong-fed her a dragonfly, and lo and behold, the next day she built a nice little web within the planted area. It's about half the size of her old one, I'm not sure why she built it so tiny, it might be due to the crazy winds we've been having in my country lately. But here it is!






As usual I had to move her UV light to her new web, and I realised this one has a slight golden sheen. Yay! This web is much stronger though. I have fed her 2 dragonflies so far, and there's nary a hole in it. That's about it for Pepper, she truly is a beauty to look at though, especially in this new spot!

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## Ah Lee (Jan 19, 2021)

*Baby formula (Ages 1 week and up)*

As for the babies, after much deliberation, I decided to start feeding them a soup to start them off. I would have gone for fruit flies, but even those are a little big for them.

Here's the recipe for my delicious 100% home-made, organic broth:

-5 crickets
-A few drops of honey
-A bit of water

I dissolved the honey in the water, then placed the crickets in a small syringe below




A quick squeeze and ta-dah! Instant baby formula.




I squirted a few squirts into their cage, and *all hell broke loose*. They went mad for the juice, lapping it up with their tiny legs. This availability of food must have triggered their hunting instincts, because I started to see them attacking each other. Most of the time the fights ended with one party running away, but sometimes one ended up as a meal. It was pandemonium.

*The release*

I quickly decided that a release was in order. The container I had them in was really small, and there wasn't a lot of space for them to disperse anymore. I drove them up to the hill where I found Skittles, and released them near an old tree. Hopefully the bark of the tree and the surrounding thick vegetation will give them some shelter in the terrible weather we are having recently. I gave them another squirt of grandpa's magic potion, and watched as they lapped it up and started to disperse. It was all very chaotic so the only photo I have of the whole process is  this:




Gradually the wind took some of them with it, some disappeared into the vegetation. I hope I had given them a good head start in life, they're on their own now! I kept about 15 of the ones that were still in the container, these will be with me for a little longer till I decide which to keep.

*The special one*

And almost immediately as I reached home, I found him/her. Somehow, one of the sneaky things found its way into my room, and has set up camp on Pepper's Christmas tree.






Its web is beautiful, about the size of a credit card but so perfect. It's just like a minature version of Skittle's web in the wild, with the characteristic "cut edge" of this species. I love it! I fed it some baby formula, and set up a really ghetto way of drawing fruit flies to it.




Yep, that is a banana peel clipped to a water bottle. Hopefully this helps the little thing feed. I'll be planning a way to catch some fruit flies soon, if anybody has any brilliant ideas I would love to hear it. Hopefully it turns out to be a female, and she'll be the next one I keep for life.

*New escape-proof, ant-proof containers*

 Meanwhile the main party has been shifted to a new container. Their old container was overrun by ants, no doubt interested in that sweet honey, but luckily none of them got eaten. I modified the container to have a mesh opening for ventilation, and fed them again with a pure cricket juice formula.




Meanwhile, I also built an incubator for Skittle's second batch of babies.




I can't wait for the babies to grow up. Cute as they are now, feeding them is a messy, sticky affair. And they are VERY hard to rehouse. Still, they have been keeping me really busy, and not to mention happy!

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## Ah Lee (Jan 19, 2021)

The Snark said:


> You should shortly be seeing two very different sizes. Males will simply stop growing. Fortunately predation among the young is virtually unheard of. Won't do any harm to allow the males to make themselves at home near to each other. When they make webs they will be pretty small at first. One or two inch across orbs. Very cute. Once mature they will often move into the perimeter of the females webs, often living their entire lives there. They are all obligatory web builders. No web, they die. Males will probably get by on fruit flies. Just leave a piece or two of rotting fruit out.They may try using the neighbors webs and food. I've seen 4 or 5 male webs sharing guy lines, right up against each other. Females love moths and are much more independent
> Please note, this is all from observations in situ. If they do odd things I'd very much like to read about it.


Thanks Snark, I'll try a rotting fruit/apple cider vinegar trap tomorrow. If I can just get them large enough to take a cricket leg, it'll all be uphill from there. Right now they are so tiny I accidentally drowned one when misting


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## Ah Lee (Jan 27, 2021)

*Eat your veggies, kids!*

It's been a hectic week looking after the kiddos. The second batch has hatched, and the first batch is starting to web nicely. I'll write a longer update later, but for now I'll leave this really interesting photo here, the kids are eating and loving flower pollen!

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## Ah Lee (Jan 28, 2021)

*Stacey's Web Dev Co. Report*

Hello everyone, and welcome to the report of the latest happenings and non-happenings at SWDC.

First and foremost, the new employee pantry is up, and is stocked full of crickets, dragonflies, butterflies, fruit flies and pollen.




The plan to catch a week's worth of dragonflies and then stock them in the pantry has failed due to the food simply not cooperating and dying prematurely. Hence the board has decided to send the human slave to catch fresh food 3 times a week, and provided him with a better net to work more efficiently.




A proper insect net works wonders, it's almost a 100% catch rate now. I now just park up by the road on the way home, catch 2 dragon/butterflies, say Hi to Stacey, and leave. All in all, a 10 minute detour, so it's hardly a chore.

Back in the office, our CEO Pepper has decided she didn't like her new office space after all, and decided to move....right back to her old spot.






Her new web is huge again, spanning about a meter across but it's slightly more tilted inwards, which is great news because it means I can now use my massage chair again. Also I prefer it when she faces away from me. When flicking food, sometimes my hand movement scares her, which doesn't happen if she's facing away from me. She has rebuilt this web once so far, so she's really hardworking for a Nephila. I believe the UVA+heat lamp I bought her makes all the difference. She's energetic, and keeps her web in tip-top shape.

I decided to take some videos of feeding time, since it is easily my favorite part of keeping orbweavers. Feeding response is usually down to 2 factors: how hungry they are and how scared they are. The hungrier they are, the more aggressively they attack. The more scared they are, the more cautiously they attack. And vice versa.

Pepper is close to her molt now, so she probably isn't very hungry. Also I bumped into her a few times as I was setting up the camera, so this is one of the slower feeding responses she has.






Here Skittles is pretty much scared because, again, I clumsily bumped her cage when setting up the camera. But she is famished as she is recovering from her egg-laying, so she still chose to come out of her hide. In this case, she usually employs a grab-and-scoot strategy, especially for butterflies because their wings cause them to not stick very well. Dragonflies usually need to be cut out, but she'll still bring it back to her lair to eat, especially if it's daytime.






After Pepper's next molt, I'll take a video of when she's famished and hopefully not scared. The difference in temperament is astounding!

Here are the 3 main types of food I feed:

*Crickets*
Easily my most hated food to feed. I only feed these in an emergency. First off, they don't stick well. Being terrestial, they have a much higher weight-to-surface ratio, which means you need to put some effort in to tangle them in the web. This will means your spider will most probably be scared shitless, so you'll have to leave the room and wait and hope the cricket doesn't fall off. You can try throwing them in the web, but for free-roaming orbweavers, the force needed to catapult it onto the web will usually just sent the cricket clean through the web. The only good thing about them is being heavy-bodied, one cricket can fill your spider for a long, long time. I use them only in emergencies.

*Butterflies*
Butterflies are also a little tricky. First off, they are very sensitive, and can seem to detect and avoid the web extremely well. I have seen them flutter around in Skittle's cage, and everytime they touch the web, they turn tail and escape. They also have sheddable scales, which means they also have a good chance of escaping once caught. Lastly, they have a pretty low amount of meat for their size. Now, to the good part. If you are holding them by one wing in your tongs, they keep fluttering. This is extremely helpful because orbweavers go absolutely bonkers for a fluttering prey. They are my go-to prey for tong-feeding. Also, their fluttering means that you can just hold it near the web, and it'll probably get itself tangled up beyond salvation. Sometimes I just slam in into a wall to knock it out cold, and throw it into the web, and I almost always get a good response. Also, they are easily scared, so for cage-dwellers like Skittles I can use my hand to scare them, and that usually results in them crashing into the web in their panic.

*Dragonflies*
My staple for my orbweavers. They are plentiful and easy to catch. They are pretty meaty compared to butterflies, and they are a little hardier so I can keep them for a day or two. The best part is that their legs are designed to catch prey, which on the flip side means that once it comes into contact with a web, it is almost always immediately gets stuck. Even when dead, tossing it into the web has a 99% chance its feet will get stuck in the web. I have had one caught by Stacey with only 2 strands of silk. Also, they are much dumber and will happily crash headlong into a web. Downsides is that they are much stronger, so can destroy a large part of the web as they struggle, or even scare off the spider. They get stuck good, so even when they are dead, the spider will usually need to cut a significant portion of the web to remove it properly. Finally they are terrible for cage-dwellers. They tend to not want to fly and will just sit in one spot to die. They are also terrible for tong-feeding because they tend not to flutter when held by a tong, and when they do, it's very strong.

Next up, I'll document some of experiences with feeding Skittle's babies. It's not easy, but I think I worked something out!

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## kevinlowl (Jan 29, 2021)

Open setup for orb weavers are cool af dude. To have one in the office I imagine it must be quite a conversation starter. And wow this is my first time seeing a Nephila kuhlii, it's such a ridiculously good looking spider. Awesome thread, looking forward to more updates.

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## Ah Lee (Jan 29, 2021)

kevinlowl said:


> Open setup for orb weavers are cool af dude. To have one in the office I imagine it must be quite a conversation starter. And wow this is my first time seeing a Nephila kuhlii, it's such a ridiculously good looking spider. Awesome thread, looking forward to more updates.


It's actually my home office, so not many people visit, but I think this little room has become an arachnophobia treatment center. Everyone that hangs around this room often has gotten over their arachnophobia, my sister even sleeps in the same room as Pepper when she stays over now

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## Ah Lee (Jan 29, 2021)

*A quick rebuild*




Pepper rebuilt her web again, the hardworking little thing. And decided to flip over to the other side, so now I can get a proper photo of her again.

Also she pooped in my face as I was taking this photo. Nephilas spray their poop in a huge arc, I don't know why. Can't they just poop downwards like civilized spiders do?

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## The Snark (Jan 29, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> Also she pooped in my face as I was taking this photo. Nephilas spray their poop in a huge arc, I don't know why. Can't they just poop downwards like civilized spiders do?


My conjecture is contrast. Spider poop is typically white which stands out starkly in their native jungle environments and makes the web, and spider therein, an easier target for their main nemesis, birds.


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## Ah Lee (Jan 31, 2021)

The Snark said:


> My conjecture is contrast. Spider poop is typically white which stands out starkly in their native jungle environments and makes the web, and spider therein, an easier target for their main nemesis, birds.


That makes a lot of sense. If they didn't spray it, it'll probably be on their bodies and webs, especially if the wind conditions are right. My first thought was pheromones, but I somehow doubt poop will be a good carrier for phermomones.

*Giving the kids an education*




Our little escapee made a web over my books. Is this how they start learning to build webs?

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## The Snark (Jan 31, 2021)

@Ah Lee That picture demands to be framed and put on a wall with the caption beneath, *Evolve!*


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## Ah Lee (Feb 3, 2021)

The Snark said:


> @Ah Lee That picture demands to be framed and put on a wall with the caption beneath, Evolve!


You theenk it funny, hooman, but I has learnt your ways and no how to use dee computer now.
Today I take over dis thread, tomolo I take over your wold wide web.
Is funny you call dis a thread, and dis place a website, but I canot find even one strand of seelk.
Your speecees will fall, spiders will rulz

Reactions: Funny 3


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## Ah Lee (Feb 3, 2021)

*Feeding woes

**Sorry for the above interruption. The little spiderling has since been caught and returned to her cage.***

So after experimenting with cricket juice, I tried superworm juice as well. It was so much easier because they juiced well and didn't have clumps of body parts clogging up the spray nozzle.
But after a few days, the container started to really smell, and and walls were just coated with dead worm. So it was time to do a rehouse.

I sealed all holes in the cage with tape, and opted for a TP substrate. It makes it much easier to spot slings, molts, or any bad stuff. Some furniture was stolen from Skittle's tank for web anchoring.




I also cut a hole in the mesh and modified it to fit a test tube cap.




I use these test tubes to catch fruit flies and mosquitoes, so feeding them is a simple matter of quickly opening the cap and popping the test tube on.




Within hours, all of them have had a web up, so the first thing I did was to try feeding them crushed bee pollen.




Mixed with water, the pollen makes quite a sticky mess, but the kids love it, and will suck on a single pollen grain for hours on end. It's incredible to see, I feel that this will hopefully supplement them till they are big enough to catch their own food.

This is the biggest one now, along with having the biggest web, but he/she is still just a little more than an mm across, but has a web about 20cm huge.




My worry now is that pollen is, after all, just a supplement. They do not seem to be taking anymore. And so far I have only seen ONE fruit fly being captured. The fruit flies seem to be very smart at avoiding the webs, and if they do get trapped momentarily, they will usually drop downwards, and tumble down the web with the spider in pursuit.

This lets me know 2 things:
1. They are ready for insect prey
2. It's just a numbers game. I need MORE fruit flies. I have yet to see a mosquito get trapped, but bear in mind the mosquito is about thrice their size.

So my plan for catching food is pretty simple. Some rotten banana and a good ol' fruit fly trap.




I got 10 inside the last time I did it, and captured about 7 in the test tubes. Hopefully I can get more, and give them a better chance at snagging one. I think 2 or 3 is all they need to reach the next molt.

Meanwhile I hang about mosquito-ridden spots and bait them with my legs, so there are 3 mosquitoes in there now.

The things I do for my kids, tsk.

Feeding them is proving to be a challenge, but I just need to get them big enough to take a cricket leg, and it's all uphill from there!

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## The Snark (Feb 3, 2021)

@Ah Lee Just thinking out loud here.

-From various papers; the quality and variety of webs the spider makes to some degree depends upon it getting the complex proteins in their diet from prey. Simple plant proteins may not supply the variety for it's nutritional needs.
-Mosquitoes. Poor choice of food. They are adept flyers and capable of flight of a km or more in a 24 hour period. Seldom get captured in webbing.
-Fruit flies are also ranging adept flyers and hard to trap.
-Thinking of the yearly mating flights of insects common throughout the Nephila range. A vast variety of different species, nearly all of which are very poor and weak flyers, only flying for a few hours before burning up their nutrition resources.
-Most of these mating flights coincide with spider species reproductive cycles.
-Mating flights occur most often after the brief rain showers during the spring warming season or in the tropics, the hot season. The majority of mating flights occurs at dusk during the transition periods of the diurnal and nocturnal predators 
-In many locales the young spiderlings hatching coincides with termite swarming which provides a tremendous abundance of food sources which are ready victims for all insectivores. Incapable of extended sustained flight and unable to defend themselves. Essentially flying-walking dead relatively large sacks of proteins.


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## Ah Lee (Feb 4, 2021)

The Snark said:


> @Ah Lee Just thinking out loud here.
> 
> -From various papers; the quality and variety of webs the spider makes to some degree depends upon it getting the complex proteins in their diet from prey. Simple plant proteins may not supply the variety for it's nutritional needs.
> -Mosquitoes. Poor choice of food. They are adept flyers and capable of flight of a km or more in a 24 hour period. Seldom get captured in webbing.
> ...


Thank you @The Snark , your experience and insight is always really helpful!
It does make a lot of sense, mosquitoes are really agile fliers, dodging our angry swats with impunity. I watched as they zipped around, sometimes touching, the webs with ease.
Fruitflies were a bit dumber, and crashed into the webs sometimes, but like I mentioned, they seemed to just stop, drop and roll upon touching a web, and would just tumble harmlessly to the ground.

I took a trip to the forest today to try and find some suitable prey (hopefully winged termites), but I wasn't able to catch any before it started raining. I'll give it another go tomorrow!


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## Ah Lee (Feb 4, 2021)

*Jackpot!*




It's an awesome day today, our little escapee has caught a fruit fly! So far I have the most hope for her. She has molted before all the other 7 slings in the same cage as her, she's the one who seems to be most active in eating pollen, she has the 2nd largest web, and she caught a fruit fly now!

If I were to judge solely on size, I would hope this little thing is a female, and if she is, she will be the one I keep!

Also this is one of the tinier fruit flies, so you can see how small they are and why I am tearing my hair out feeding them. But I have to say, watching them grow is so worth it!


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## The Snark (Feb 4, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> I took a trip to the forest today to try and find some suitable prey (hopefully winged termites), but I wasn't able to catch any before it started raining. I'll give it another go tomorrow!


They break out after a rain but I'm pretty sure they only fly at night. See the people hunting termites, finding the nest and catching certain species as they come out like a fountain just after dark. I wonder if they could be frozen?

Looks like fruit flies are the answer, at least for now. If you can put up with them it should be easy to farm a few billion. 
If you have rice fields nearby how about getting a fine mesh butterfly net? Go out just at dusk and collect a few kg! They should be flooding the fields about now so there must be mating swarming of all sorts of species coming up.

I'm really curious how the kids mature. How often are they molting? When they start to show dimoprhism? Start giving hints of adult coloration. The attrition rate and if you can do things the reduce it. Lots of blanks to fill in. 
I wonder if Pepper will accept a few of these next generation boyfriends?


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## Ah Lee (Feb 6, 2021)

*Drumstick!*




Yes the the little escapee has taken it's first cricket leg! I pulled the front legs off the smallest cricket in my box, poked a little hole in the mesh and dropped it. Out of 4 legs, 2 got stuck, and it ate them both! It's abdomen has grown significantly in size now, so i expect a molt to be coming soon.

I will try to feed the others the same way, but not all of them have webs so near the mesh, and their webs are mostly tiny.

I feel this one would be a female, but it's a completely baseless, unscientific feel, so I'll just keep observing!

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## Ah Lee (Feb 7, 2021)

The Snark said:


> They break out after a rain but I'm pretty sure they only fly at night. See the people hunting termites, finding the nest and catching certain species as they come out like a fountain just after dark. I wonder if they could be frozen?
> 
> Looks like fruit flies are the answer, at least for now. If you can put up with them it should be easy to farm a few billion.
> If you have rice fields nearby how about getting a fine mesh butterfly net? Go out just at dusk and collect a few kg! They should be flooding the fields about now so there must be mating swarming of all sorts of species coming up.


I stay in a very developed city, so wildlife is scarce, and it's illegal to catch stuff in nature reserves, but so far there are a few spots that I have managed to find that are still relatively safe (far away enough from buildings where they spray insecticide frequently), and Stacey's resting place is one of them. Termites seem to be really hard to find nowadays though, when I was younger i remembered they used to swarm our lights after rainy days. Now there isn't even one. But with some wild-caught flying stuff, my fruit fly culture and cricket legs, I think my feeding plan is set!

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## Ah Lee (Feb 7, 2021)

The Snark said:


> I'm really curious how the kids mature. How often are they molting? When they start to show dimoprhism? Start giving hints of adult coloration. The attrition rate and if you can do things the reduce it. Lots of blanks to fill in.
> I wonder if Pepper will accept a few of these next generation boyfriends?


For my 2nd batch I mostly adopted a "leave-them-alone" attitude. Other than the occasional misting, I hardly go near them. And somehow this batch appears to be developing faster than the first.

1. They take about a month to hatch, and during this time I mostly left them alone. I mist Skittle's cage occasionally, but that's about it. I move the egg to the incubator at week 2.
2. After hatching they are mostly yellowish with fat yellow butts. After a molt they start becoming dark and losing the yolk. That is about 3-4 days after hatching.
3. About 10 days after hatching, they started scattering. This is much faster than the first batch. This time my incubator has a screen lid, so perhaps a breeze is triggering their instincts to scatter?
4. I am at 16 days now, and so far none have died. In fact, for the previous batch the only ones that died were the ones I accidentally drowned while misting. One very interesting thing I noticed is that even though they are scattered at this point, they still seem to function as a swarm.


You see how they are clustered together? They move around the container as a cluster as well. Also with the 1st batch, I had an escape through an air hole. What amazed me was about half the batch escaped through the same air hole together, and then formed a cluster about 2 metres up on my ceiling. Probably less than 5 were separated from the cluster, but I managed to recapture the entire lot in one fell swoop.
The fact that they migrated as a swarm just baffled me, but it was lucky that I didn't have to deal with an infestation.
5. At the stage they do drink a bit when I mist, but still do not take pollen. I will try pollen feeding again later and if they take it, I will plan my release because this is the point when they start building their little webs.
6. So far after building their webs, the first batch has molted between 1-2 times. They still have not gained any adult coloration, and neither do they display sexual dimorphism. The only difference between them is size, but suspect that is just how much they have been eating. They would probably have grown much faster if I had found a reliable way to feed them early on, so I would say their rate of growth is slow only due to my poor care. Hopefully with the pollen, fruit flies and cricket legs, they will start thriving now!

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## Ah Lee (Feb 7, 2021)

*It's raining drumsticks!*




After realising that they will happily take a cricket leg four times their weight, it was time to start the carpet bombing. It was like playing one of those claw machines. I will try to estimate a good position to drop the leg from, then use a small penknife to drill a hole in the mesh.

One tiny cricket gets me 4 tries. The rest of the cricket goes to mom, who is baffled by the unexplained appearance of front-legless crickets.

One of the biggest challenges is getting the leg on the orbweb itself, as most of the time it gets caught in the barrier webs. But the resident mosquito is being really helpful, and everytime she flies past the webs, she vibrates it and the spiderling will almost always realised there is food in the web.

So far 5 of them have gotten a leg, but 2 of them are below their siblings' webs, so there is no way to drop a leg to them, I guess they will have to wait for the fruit flies then!

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## Ah Lee (Feb 11, 2021)

*Meet Coffee.*

Our little escapee has a name now! She is Coffee, the latest intern in Stacey's Web Dev. Co.

She just had her 3rd molt today, and is starting to get a bit of mom's colors. It was really quick! By the time I got my camera and was struggling to focus, she was halfway done.










She is looking much more like a spider now and less like a blob with legs. Don't let the photos fool you, she's still really tiny, at about 3mm in legspan. Everything happens in fast motion with these little things, they grow up so fast!

Also I have yet to see sexual dimorphism, the only difference I am seeing is size, which can be wildly unreliable. I'll keep observing!

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## The Snark (Feb 11, 2021)

@Ah Lee I'm equally interested in your metamorphosis along with the progeny. With your intense curiosity you will pick up on the details and development of them to the degree you may notice subtle traits that will differentiate the sexes before obvious physical characteristics occur.

At the pack station I went out to do the head count of the horses, dead of night, no moon. I innately was able to spot all of the 26 horses, just shapes and shadows, that were my charges plus an additional 5 that had just arrived. Pure innate familiarity. -> Big appy gelding, smallish roan gelding probably a yearling, and three additional mares.
(And snerk. The appy was strutting his stuff. _My New Herd!_ Wait until dawn big guy, when you get to meet short, dark and gruesome, my stallion.)

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## Ah Lee (Feb 13, 2021)

*Pepper's new look*




Little Pepper is no longer little, she molted into a vibrant display of color, very befitting for a CEO. Striking red legs with black tarsi, she's quite a sight to behold now as she props majestically on her web. She is actually larger than Stacey now!

And now for the most incredible part: she gave herself a gold crown.




I am absolutely baffled, I thought it was the lighting at first but now it is unmistakable. Half her carapace is showing the bright gold colors of the Nephila pilipes. I have never seen a color morph like this, whether in the wild or in photos online. Could she be a hybrid? Hopefully someone here can shed some light on how this might have happened.

Regardless, she is looking absolutely beautiful, from her gold carapace down to her black tibia, it's amazing how much she changed in this molt!

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## Ah Lee (Feb 14, 2021)

*Again, Skittles?*




Whoopee doo, our extremely fertile chief web designer has just laid another eggsac. At this point I'm convinced she's just doing it so she can apply for maternity leave. I am just about to release the 2nd batch, so the incubator will be ready for these.




Mommy Skittles gets a huge dragonfly to get her energy back, her abdomen is always very deflated after egg-laying. Wait...maybe she's doing this for the food...

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## Ah Lee (Feb 14, 2021)

*Coffee's feeding update*




Project fruitfly is a success! I have well over 30 flies in the container now. What I did next was replace the cover, rip the plastic wrap, placed a test tube on top and shook the container.




Their instinct is to escape upwards, and they get stuck in the test tube, so I get about a dozen each go, and released 2 batches into the cage. So far everyone has caught at least 1, but Coffee has surpassed everyone else with a 5-fly killstreak.

It's amazing watching her hunt, the flies don't stick well, but they tumble down the web in an attempt to escape. She chases them with incredible speed and captures them. Guess it's not just the web that does all the work!

She's terribly fat now, but no photos because my camera is survivng on it's last bar of battery, and my replacement charger hasn't arrived yet. I want to save the battery for when she molts again, which should be soon!

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## The Snark (Feb 14, 2021)

Your efforts with Nephila remind me very much of our neighbors. Their back yard was surrounded on all sides by a tall hedge. Their residence was once the caretakers cottage of a large estate that experimented with hybrid and exotic trees. In their back yard was one such tree, in the center of the yard, a Fukien tea tree that had grow to about 12 feet tall and about 15 feet across.
The neighbor obtained a pair of Jackson horned chameleons and he wanted to provide them with a perfect near natural habitat. So he went into the back yard and manicured the tree. Trimmed it away from the hedge then meticulously trimmed all the branches until the foliage was thin enough to be able to spot the profile of the chameleons when looking up through it. Literally hundreds of hours of trimming - essentially turning the tree into a gigantic bonsai.  Then he released the chameleons into the tree. Tidbits of fruit attached to the branches attracted the assorted insect for the animal's food.
Keeping the tree neatly trimmed about a year later the pair produced over 30 offspring.

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## Ah Lee (Feb 15, 2021)

The Snark said:


> Your efforts with Nephila remind me very much of our neighbors. Their back yard was surrounded on all sides by a tall hedge. Their residence was once the caretakers cottage of a large estate that experimented with hybrid and exotic trees. In their back yard was one such tree, in the center of the yard, a Fukien tea tree that had grow to about 12 feet tall and about 15 feet across.
> The neighbor obtained a pair of Jackson horned chameleons and he wanted to provide them with a perfect near natural habitat. So he went into the back yard and manicured the tree. Trimmed it away from the hedge then meticulously trimmed all the branches until the foliage was thin enough to be able to spot the profile of the chameleons when looking up through it. Literally hundreds of hours of trimming - essentially turning the tree into a gigantic bonsai.  Then he released the chameleons into the tree. Tidbits of fruit attached to the branches attracted the assorted insect for the animal's food.
> Keeping the tree neatly trimmed about a year later the pair produced over 30 offspring.


Omg you hit the nail on the head. That sounds like a dream, and exactly the kind of thing I would do! Props to your neighbour for pulling it off!

Already I am planning for a spider corner when redo my bathroom in the future. Basically an entire wall with live plants and space for a Nephila web. Bathroom just seems perfect for such a project because I can maintain a high humidity without destroying anything. Only downside is they have to bear with the stench of my poo

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## The Snark (Feb 16, 2021)

With what you are already doing combined with the knowledge gained so far, it sounds like the situation has serious potential. At a temple which took over a nature preserve, under the main roof of the services and business building there was about 75 medium large orb type weavers in what amounted to a community environment. With Nephila being essentially peaceful towards their fellow Neph neighbors I would hope for a similar situation. Certainly worth working towards.

PS To the best of my knowledge, the only arachnids that might have a sense of smell were cells found in the leg joints of L. Hesperus that resembled olfactory cells. Thus a possible explanation of why they are attracted to bathrooms and outhouses. Even disused outhouses in desert environments without any moisture present.


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## Ah Lee (Feb 16, 2021)

*Coffee's rise to power*

~It seems that after studying arachnology and getting a small headstart in life, Coffee has taken over the babies' tank.~

Today I released the 2nd batch. They had mostly molted a 2nd time, and were more active than the first batch when I released them. I think I had done a good job with them!




The area I released them to was in the heart of the rainforest, with lots of little flying things for them to feast upon.

It was then I noticed a mushroom colony absolutely swarming with fruit flies. I swiped the babies' old home and caught about 7-8.




I realised they were not fruit flies, but slightly fatter, with a "beak". What was awesome was that they were the terrible fliers @The Snark talked about. By just knocking the container against the table, they all fell into a neat little pile at the bottom. Upon realising this, I cut a hole in the container, and easily transferred them into a test tube.

They didn't fly much, but when they did, they got trapped pretty easily.

*Now this is the part I realised I have a problem. Coffee was eating everyone's food.*

She is the largest, and her web the largest (and most effective it seems) now. She has caught 2 so far, the 2nd largest has caught 1, the rest have caught nothing.

This is her finishing off the first one. She is now eating her 2nd one as I type this, and is ballooning so much I think she's gonna burst.




One of her lucky siblings stays below her, and always manages to get leftovers because it's web is directly below Coffee's hub. This means that Coffee isn't even finishing her meals completely. Her downstairs neighbour is actually thriving on Coffee's leftovers.

But you can still see how much smaller it is.




This is very interesting to me though. I can see how much the scales tip in favor of those who have had a small headstart in their lives. It's natural selection, within a 1ft x 1ft box. I need to devise a way to feed the others, but again I believe it's a numbers game. Coffee can only catch so much!

I will be returning to the mushroom spot again to see if I can get more, even cultivate them. Meanwhile my fruit fly culture has gone putrid and I needed to discard it, it'll take a while for the next one to bloom, so it's cricket legs and pollen for now.

If anyone knows anything about these flies, your input is much appreciated!

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## Ah Lee (Feb 16, 2021)

The Snark said:


> With what you are already doing combined with the knowledge gained so far, it sounds like the situation has serious potential. At a temple which took over a nature preserve, under the main roof of the services and business building there was about 75 medium large orb type weavers in what amounted to a community environment. With Nephila being essentially peaceful towards their fellow Neph neighbors I would hope for a similar situation. Certainly worth working towards.
> 
> PS To the best of my knowledge, the only arachnids that might have a sense of smell were cells found in the leg joints of L. Hesperus that resembled olfactory cells. Thus a possible explanation of why they are attracted to bathrooms and outhouses. Even disused outhouses in desert environments without any moisture present.


That had always been lingering in the back of my mind. I know of at least one lab which keeps Nephilas together in a closed room, and it seem cannibalism isn't of a concern. But why did Stacey and Xiaohua fight to the death before? Because they are different in species? Some people believe the Nephila kuhlii to be just a color morph of the Nephila pilipes though. Are they even sensitive enough to tell if a potential intruder is of a slightly different color morph? So many questions, but I'm just really glad to be on this journey of learning

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## The Snark (Feb 16, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> But why did Stacey and Xiaohua fight to the death before? Because they are different in species? Some people believe the Nephila kuhlii to be just a color morph of the Nephila pilipes though. Are they even sensitive enough to tell if a potential intruder is of a slightly different color morph?


I have no idea who said this or in what circumstance, but it appears to apply. _"Humans tend to assign attributes to animals they simply don't / cannot possess. No rational or reasoning thinking; when a primal instinct such as survival gets triggered that's it."_ So your question would be more apt if you asked what triggered the same primal function in two animals that are normally communal? The same could be asked why two dogs that have been amiable companions suddenly fight?
You could add to this by their normal day to day conduct Nephila can easily lull us into a sense of false security. They are after all extremely capable combatants as seen it their occasional taking on a bird trapped in their web.



Ah Lee said:


> This is very interesting to me though. I can see how much the scales tip in favor of those who have had a small headstart in their lives. It's natural selection, within a 1ft x 1ft box. I need to devise a way to feed the others, but again I believe it's a numbers game. Coffee can only catch so much!


Abundance of prey or food source. Probably the prime factor in natural selection. The more abundant and easily available, the greater the number of survivors. Certain termite species colonies will expand to cover several square miles with sufficient food sources. When food availabity drops off the colonies become islands. I once saw a computer overhead mapping of such a colony, much like a tide going in and out of a land mass at the edge of a tidal zone that turns into archipelago.



Ah Lee said:


> Coffee's rise to power


I think I'm starting to see some dimorphism in those pictures. The males keep the same coloration throughout their lives while with the females the colors become more vibrant.


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## Edan bandoot (Feb 17, 2021)

The Snark said:


> PS To the best of my knowledge, the only arachnids that might have a sense of smell were cells found in the leg joints of L. Hesperus that resembled olfactory cells. Thus a possible explanation of why they are attracted to bathrooms and outhouses. Even disused outhouses in desert environments without any moisture present.


im pretty sure amblypygi contain olfactory cells in their whips

edit for links:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...p_spider_Phrynus_parvulus_Arachnida_Amblypygi





						Error - Cookies Turned Off
					






					onlinelibrary.wiley.com
				



.

unfortunately I don't have any way of reading the papers in their entirety, but their abstracts seem to confirm this

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## Ah Lee (Feb 18, 2021)

The Snark said:


> I think I'm starting to see some dimorphism in those pictures. The males keep the same coloration throughout their lives while with the females the colors become more vibrant.


Nope that's not it, at least not that I can confirm yet. So far from what I'm seeing, they get darker with every molt. Coffee is 2 molts away from her downstairs neighbour, and looked the same when she was that size. From what I see in the Nephila pilipes, the males develop a different-shaped abdomen and markings early in their lives, and I think it might be similar for the Nephilengys malabarensis. Right now they are too small for me to even see much, but I'll keep observing and report back!

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## Ah Lee (Feb 20, 2021)

*Stacey Web Dev. Co. Company Update*

Hello everyone, once again, when we have a title like this, it usually means quite a lot of excitement at SWDC. And indeed there is!

First off, the company has sent our human slave to check out the spot where we released hundreds of Skittle's babies. And after some searching, we are pleased to announce he has found a few of them!




The biggest one is a little larger than Coffee, and they  make their homes amongst the tree bark. It's baffling, they make a crappy little tangle web on the tree trunk, and I have absolutely no idea what they eat or how they catch it, but they grew quickly! This is as best as I could get with my clip-on lens, I'll bring my camera next time.

Still I'm really happy to see at least a few of them are doing well, they also seem to have lighter-colored abdomens, which is strange, considering all of those I am keeping have dark ones.

*Meet Tony*

My next job was to kidnap employ a male secretary for Pepper, and after about 2 hours of searching, I found him!




I found him on an abandoned web, and to be honest I am not sure if he is even compatible with Pepper, but I didn't find any males on the very few Nephila kuhlii webs I found.




Pepper plucked her web when she sensed him, which seemed to scare him shitless because he refused to move for the next hour or so. I gave Pepper a dragonfly to distract her, and immediately the little thing scurried up.

Interestingly, he didn't scurry to her, but straight to her hub. He waited till she came back, and then hopped on. The interview is a success!




Their relationship quickly got very unprofessional, and soon they were sharing meals and making babies while having said meal. Very unprofessional, but Pepper is the CEO, and the CEO does what she wants.




Today I managed to see her ventral side, and I noticed she has the yellow spots on her knees like Stacey, and a strange redness on the underside of her abdomen. Again, none of the N. kuhlii I have seen have displayed such colors. I really do think she is a hybrid!

*Coffee's 4th molt*

In the intern's office, Coffee has molted once again, she is growing really well! But like Mommy Skittles, she is building a lattice web to protect herself, so it's getting hard to photograph her. I don't want to shift her tank for now, so here's one photo I managed to get!

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## Edan bandoot (Feb 20, 2021)

Wow the males are beautiful


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## Ah Lee (Feb 26, 2021)

Edan bandoot said:


> Wow the males are beautiful


Yes they are! If they even got half as big as the females they would be seriously stunning lil things. But probably also the first thing to be attacked by a bird.

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## Ah Lee (Feb 27, 2021)

*Coming of age*




Coffee has been upgraded to rear cricket legs now, and she's really growing up really nicely. My fruit fly culture is generating 20-30 fruit flies a day, so everyone is getting plenty.

I still cannot tell their sexes apart, at least not without a 100% confidence rate. Right now it's just a gut feel, probably based on the build of their bodies and their size.

Still, it is time to start planning Coffee's next home, and that only means one thing...

*Field Trip!*

Today SWDC sent the human slave on a business trip to learn more about the Nephilengys malabarensis, and hopefully learn more about them in order to provide a good home for Coffee, as I am thinking of letting her go free-roam as well.

Problem was that Skittles was the only one of her kind that I had seen, even after so many months of hiking in the area I found her. I expanded my search into a nearby hill today, and it took all of 3 hours, but I finally found a colony!




This is the first web we saw, a large, impressive waterfall web, under a tree branch. We found many more later, and they all shared the same location type: A vertical trunk with an overhang. A strong anchor line from the overhang to the trunk marks the boundaries of the web, and the web is built within.




Like Skittles, they build a tube web in a nook on the tree trunk, surrounded by a really messy lattice web structure. It's very hard to get near to them for a good picture, because of the lattice web and because they are really sensitive.




One of the most impressive displays was this tree, with a wavy branch. In every nook, there was a Nephilengys web. Incredible, they really do seem to be picky about web-building sites!

The trip was extremely fruitful, I have a plan in mind on how I can create a suitable corner for Coffee now, and that means she could very possibly be free-roam when she gets older.




We finished the trip with a really pretty Nephila kuhlii, it has orange legs instead of red, and is quite a looker! (Not as much as Pepper, of course.)




A dragonfly magically found it's web into her web. How, I do not know. Wasn't me!

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## Ah Lee (Mar 1, 2021)

*FFS!*

Ladies annnnnd gentlemen! Welcome to our very first Fruit Fly Showdown, A.K.A *FFS*!

SWDC's fruit fly factory has been absolutely exploding, and I am getting over 30 fruit flies every extraction. I can extract twice a day and still have plenty left in the culture.

For those of you wondering how I transport flying fruit flies, here's a short video showing how they tend to fly upwards when scared. This makes transferring them from the culture bottle to the test tube reaaaally easy.






I released this huge swarm in, and it was mayhem, but really interesting mayhem! The fruit flies usually take about 5 seconds to escape a web once caught, but most of the slings now are really speedy, and catch the flies about 2-3 seconds after they land.
I also noticed they tend to bite, wrap and attach their food to the web, meaning they are always ready to attack new prey without losing the first.

And now, the results!

*First place: Coffee (6 kills)*




Shouldn't come as a surprise now. Coffee has the largest web, moves the fastest, and her web just seems more effective. Also she has reached the size where she can grind up exoskeletons now, so she is eating much quicker, and making boluses like a spider should!

*2nd place: Latte (5 kills)*




Latte's web is right below the feeding hole, so she always gets first dibs on food. But with her smaller size, she needs time to lug her food up the web and store it securely, meaning a lot of escapes. By the 5th one she didn't seem to bother to catch anymore, and just sat there sipping her fruit fly. She will be going to a friend of mine once she's big enough!

*3rd place: Macchiato (4 kills)*




Macchiato is Latte's downstairs neighbour, and often gets leftovers that tumble down Latte's web. It seems to have built a decent web for itself, and it seems to be mixed up with Coffee's gigantic web, so I have seen it steal food from Coffee at least once, but oh well, Coffee is fat enough.

*4th place: Cappuccino (3 kills)*




Cappuccino used to be doing very badly, building a tiny web in the open corner where flies couldn't venture and where I couldn't drop cricket legs properly because it's lattice web is in the way. It suspiciously grew in size after the disappearance of it's downstairs neighbour, which I would assume is related. In any case, with it's new size, it has built a decent web and has caught 3 flies. Interestingly it didn't lug the flies back up, but left them on the web. Maybe it's just too small?

*5th place: Bean (1 kill)*




Bean used to have a healthy amount of leftovers since he stays right below Coffee. Ever since the little tree collapsed, his food source has been cut off, but he has always been doing a decent job catching food by himself with his small web, mostly because flies seem to get stuck around the little corner. I call him a 'he', because he seems to be one of those that eats the most, but grows very little. I am just hazarding a guess he might be male, but it's completely unscientific.

*6th place: Espresso (0 kills)*

Espresso is the one that really isn't doing very well. He has a really tiny web in the far corner of the tank, and almost always catches nothing. The only plus side is that I can feed him cricket legs, but his growth has been really slow, so again I suspect he's a male. Poor chap didn't get anything today, so I'll probably feed him a leg later. He's holed up near the lid now so I couldn't even get a photo.

That concludes the first FFS for the company. Everyone is absolutely stuffed now, and we'll be having some updates on the CEO and the 3rd batch of babies soon. Till next time!

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## Ah Lee (Mar 7, 2021)

*Hello world!*




The 3rd batch of slings have mostly molted once, and are starting to lose their yolk. I almost forgot how tiny they are, my morning eye booger is larger than them.

Looking back I'm surprised I even managed to raise them!

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## Ah Lee (Mar 9, 2021)

*End of SWDC's first internship program*




Today Coffee came out to hunt, and I finally got a shot of her in all her tiny majesty. She far outsizes everyone else, and is starting to develop adult colors, sans the bright red markings Mom has. You can see why it is so hard to take a photo of her now. Her lattice web is quite thick, and she spends most of her time in the corner.

It seems that at this age they start to be really wary of predation, and will all run and hide at the slightest bump. A few weeks back there could be an earthquake and they wouldn't flinch.

I am 80% convinced that the size difference between the slings is sexual dimorphism now, and not just feeding amounts. At least for Coffee, she is as big as many mature males now.

*Moving on.*

The plan to release the rest might be cancelled for now. They seem to thrive well in my care, and I still want to see when the males start exhibiting male characteristics. But for Coffee, she is about to be promoted to have her own office.

I have planned a pretty nice space for her, which I hope she will take up. But that's for the next post!

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## Ah Lee (Mar 12, 2021)

*Operation Coffee House is a success!*

It's a great day today at SWDC! Armed with a rough idea of what a Nephilengys habitat would look like, I went off to my local aquarium to look through their reject pile of wood. I found one that is the perfect size, with a decent overhang, and lots of nooks and crannies to make Coffee feel secure.

I brought it home, boiled it, cleared some insects out and drilled a hole in it's "armpit". This allows Coffee a secure place to hide, and with any luck she'll find this spot perfect for webbing.




The wood is secured to my cabinet with screws, and I got a grass patch, sign and door from the dollar store just for kicks.




I released Coffee at the bottom, and she seemed to take to the wood right away. She did a bit of exploring, found a small spot she liked, and hid there.




Later on she found the hole I drilled, and really liked it. She spent the rest of the day there, and at night she started fixing a couple of her lattice web there. At that point, I knew i had success! I left her alone, and the next day I was greeted with this.




She had built a massive web, all the way to the corner of the cabinet. For scale, she can comfortably fit inside the 'O' of the word 'coffee'. It is quite impressive! Her web is very hard to photograph, but I did manage to get some shots with a misting bottle as the sun came in.




It looks like there's still room for growth, so hopefully she'll spend the rest of her life here.

I rearranged the table to make space for her and let me mist her without destroying stuff, and I think she really adds to the decor!




The feeling of joy everytime I build a spot that makes a spider want to stay there is indescribable. All that field research has paid off! It's truly a different feeling from keeping one in a cage. I fed her 3 midges from my toilet today, which she very swiftly attacked.

So that's it, Coffee's new office is officially done!

Meanwhile, Skittles has had a fourth eggsac, so she's on maternity leave again. Why am I not even surprised at this point?

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## The Snark (Mar 12, 2021)

Not to tell you your business but that wall behind her web and to the right. Strikes me as a perfect spot for a reproduction of one of the masters to compliment her efforts. Maybe a Rembrandt, dark and subtle, helping enhance the web visibility. Perhaps the master himself. All about light and shadows.  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Selfportrait_Rembrandt1641.jpg


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## Ah Lee (Mar 17, 2021)

The Snark said:


> Not to tell you your business but that wall behind her web and to the right. Strikes me as a perfect spot for a reproduction of one of the masters to compliment her efforts. Maybe a Rembrandt, dark and subtle, helping enhance the web visibility. Perhaps the master himself. All about light and shadows.  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Selfportrait_Rembrandt1641.jpg


That exact wall, however, has been stipulated as a site for a wedding photo, after an indignant wife complained that I took down our wedding photo to make space for Coffee's house 

I'm just very reluctant to drill a hole now as that would mean scaring the living crap out of Coffee.


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## The Snark (Mar 17, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> after an indignant wife complained that I took down our wedding photo to make space for Coffee's house


Holmes, you all be treading on very thin ice there. Just saying.

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## Ah Lee (Mar 17, 2021)

*Aggressive expansion*

Our CEO Pepper finally took down her ratty web after a few weeks of it falling into disrepair. Since then she has been wandering the room seemingly looking for a new site. Sometimes she sets up a crappy platform like Stacey and I get to feed her, then she moves again.

Last night she finally found a nice little spot with sunshine and a nice breeze.

*Right on top of my workdesk.


*

That is just terribly rude, because I told her that is the only place she can't build a web.

But seeing she's hungry, I let it slide. Her web is quite literally the centerpiece of my room. It is very hard to take a photo of it, but it occupies the whole width of my room, about 2.4m across.




Upon closer inspection, her spider-sense meant that I actually can still tolerate her web being there. Her anchor points were well out of the way of my workspace, and she even made an arch for me to reach over and close the windows.

I am still quite convinced their spatial awareness is pretty strong, I try to highlight the main anchor points of her web below.




Guess I have nothing really to complain about. The only issues are going to be misting her, and her pooping all over my nice black curtains. Thankfully poopy time usually comes with misting time, so I think I can make it work.

Now that the company web is connected to the world wide web, our CEO gets a well-deserved butterfly.




Her colors have become a lot darker, and only really show up in bright sunlight now.

*Web observations*

This web Pepper has built is very similar to the last ones built by Stacey. They are definitely not gold, and the gaps between the threads are huge. You could throw a dubia clean through it. But it is strong. Very strong.

Then it hit me. I have upgraded Pepper and Stacey to full-sized dragonflies ever since they reached adulthood. And this web is perfect for catching them. Widely-spaced threads with no gold coloring means they are very invisible, especially for sharp-eyed dragonflies. The threads are not very sticky, but strong enough to tangle a dragonflies strong wings and legs. Could it be then, that this is a response to prey type? My wife always just says she is lazy, but I believe these amazing spiders somehow are a lot more adaptable then we give them credit for.



The Snark said:


> Holmes, you all be treading on very thin ice there. Just saying.


Thankfully, the offending spider is terribly adorable with her little fat butt and beautiful web. So much so that my wife actually caught a midge for her, and took a video of the feeding.

View attachment V_20210317_093045_ES0.mp4

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## BobBarley (Mar 17, 2021)

Loving this thread! Keep it up

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## Charliemum (Mar 23, 2021)

Just sat and devoured this thread ! I love it its so unique and very interesting.  I can't wait to read the next installment. Ps your girls are beautiful

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## Ah Lee (Mar 23, 2021)

BobBarley said:


> Loving this thread! Keep it up





Charliemum said:


> Just sat and devoured this thread ! I love it its so unique and very interesting.  I can't wait to read the next installment. Ps your girls are beautiful


Thank you so much for your comments, and for joining us here! I love these girls to bits, and it means a lot to me that there are like-minded people like y'all that appreciate them as well.

*Company websites*

It's a bright sunny day today at SWDC, and it's time for another company update!

The morning sun lit up Pepper's web, and I can now show you all how different it is from her old ones.







You can see how huge the gaps are, something I do not see even in wild Nephilas her size. And the curious thing is that both Stacey and Pepper built the same kind of webs when they reached adulthood.

I still think it is a prey-related thing. So I've been feeding Pepper exclusively butterflies now to test my hypothesis.

Meanwhile though, the sunlight beaming through Pepper really brings out her reds!




*Coffee's website Version 3.0*

Coffee seems to really love her little corner. Like her Mom, she gradually builds her web larger and larger every time she does a rebuild. This is the third full rebuild she has done.




Her web is really, really invisble. I had to push the clarity and artificially boost the sharpness in Photoshop to get this, but you can clearly see why it is called a waterfall web now!

She is already using the full length of the space, so I might need to upgrade her housing a few months down when she feels that space is lacking.

Meanwhile, Coffee has become really elusive and secretive, and I just barely get glimpses of her when she hunts. Most of the time all I see is a little butt.

She molted 2 days ago, and today is back on hunting mode, so I managed to get this shot before she disappeared again.




She is quite large now, about shy of an inch, and has started developing bright yellow markings and a much darker color. I'm interested to see when she starts getting Mom's red markings, if ever.

*It's a boy!*

Our first confirmed male has appeared, about 3 months from the day of hatching. Surprisingly he was the 2nd biggest of the group, so it seems that their gender was not the main factor affecting their rate of growth.




I released him along with the 3rd batch of Skittle's babies yesterday. Meanwhile I am getting the incubator all cleaned and prepped for the 4th batch.

Pepper isn't showing any signs of pregnancy, but she's quite fat now so there's that.

My photo-taking attempts of Skittles has once again failed, as she runs for her life the moment the tank doors are open. I left them open so hopefully the next time she comes out, I can actually take some decent photos of her.

Finally, it seems to be midge season here, and at least 2-3 turn up in my toilet everyday. That means Coffee is a happy girl!

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## The Snark (Mar 23, 2021)

Coffee, the Beverly Hills Over Achiever. I have always equated excessive web building as leading to a shorter life span. I hope this is not the case. It's very fascinating how different the webs are with spiders all from the same hatching and similar environments. This is definitely new territory being explored.

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## Storm76 (Mar 23, 2021)

Just went through this thread. I do love the style in which news are reported and the little pieces of story pieces of a "Web Company" make me smile. It's a very nice thread, about some gorgeous spiders and a lovely little company run by them. Speaking of - how well do they pay their hooman slaves?

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## Ah Lee (Mar 24, 2021)

Storm76 said:


> Just went through this thread. I do love the style in which news are reported and the little pieces of story pieces of a "Web Company" make me smile. It's a very nice thread, about some gorgeous spiders and a lovely little company run by them. Speaking of - how well do they pay their hooman slaves?


Thank you!

They pay terribly. I tried asking for some pay once and got something like 'do it for the exposure' and 'all you need is love'. Followed quickly by 'where's my food?' and 'clean up the poo please'.

This company survives simply by freeloading off my struggling startup and generally acting cute.



The Snark said:


> Coffee, the Beverly Hills Over Achiever. I have always equated excessive web building as leading to a shorter life span. I hope this is not the case. It's very fascinating how different the webs are with spiders all from the same hatching and similar environments. This is definitely new territory being explored.


*Coffee's Web Version 4.0*

As if to prove Uncle Snark's point, our little over-achiever has today decided that since she can't build the web any taller, she'll build it *wider*.

Her new web now extends all the way to the end of the branch, and a little further in the other direction too.




That's it, that is the physical limitation of her current house now. I honestly thought she would take a few months at least before she is big enough to fill this space. Go figure!

*Food!*

Such performance is definitely worthy of a bonus, so Coffee gets another midge.

This has to be the favorite part of my morning. To watch her pop out and go "*Is there food?!*"

She'll sometimes pluck her web to be sure, and will feel anything in her web immediately. "*There IS food!*"

The crazy little thing will make a mad dash for her food, while being attached to a dragline. She'll grab her food, and then zip up the dragline while swinging wildly.

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## The Snark (Mar 24, 2021)

Neither my wife nor I have seen anything near that intricate a web in a Neph, and she's banged her head through more than her fair share of them. One explanation is she's using much more than the usual three main guy lines.  You be in uncharted territory here. Keep documenting!


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## Ah Lee (Apr 6, 2021)

*SUCCESS!!!!!!!*

It's been a while since the last update. My favourite game Monster Hunter dropped on 26th, and I had been playing it whenever I was free. There were lots of exciting things happening here at SWDC, and I would have a big update post soon now that the game launch hype has died down.

But for now, the biggest, most exciting thing of 2021 has finally happened.

*Pepper has laid an eggsac!*

I first started noticing something was amiss when she started getting really fat. Usually they get fat to a point when they start being only semi-interested in food, but Pepper was ravenous and just kept eating and eating.

Then last night, she suddenly disappeared, and reappeared this morning looking really skinny.

I combed the entire room, and after 30 minutes, I found this.




A fluffy, orange/gold eggsac hidden below my table, YESSSS! I removed it with a penknife, it was much easier to remove than Skittle's bomb-proof eggsacs. And it's pretty large, about the size of a meatball.

I am so excited for it to hatch now, I really do hope it's not a dud!

*So once again, I am offering up the babies to anyone who can give them a good home. Just pay for your own shipping, and let me know how many you want.*

I plan to ship them as soon as they disperse, so hopefully their yolk reserves can last them till they reach you.

I'm in rather uncharted waters now, but I'm really excited to start caring for them!

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## Charliemum (Apr 6, 2021)

Congratulations Pepper  I hope all goes well with them Lee can't wait to see them. So excited for yous

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## Ah Lee (Apr 8, 2021)

*Coffee's update*

Coffee has been growing really well, she mostly gets midges and alates for dinner, and I have observed so many incredible things about her hunting behavior! Today is catch-up day, and I will collate everything in this post.

First off, I managed to capture her latest molt! It was a 25 minute process from start to finish, and you can watch here if you like. Video has been sped up 10x before everyone falls asleep.






This is her 3 days after her molt. She has darkened a lot now, and her yellow markings are starting to turn a little more orange. I guess they will turn into Mom's red when she gets older?




*All-you-can-eat buffet*

Last week, there was an alate explosion in my area. There were thousands of winged ants just swarming the area after a heavy rain. I threw one into Coffee's web, and she bit it, wrapped it up, and dangled in at her hub.

That is extremely strange, because she usually eats it right away. Do they then have an innate ability to recognize that certain prey come in swarms, and is just preparing for more to come?

In any case, I threw in another heavier one, and this time she didn't even bother bringing it back home. She just bit it, and pulled some silk out to 'paste' it onto the web. She then went back to the hub to wait again.

I threw a last, really fat one, and witnessed the most incredible thing.




Do you see the huge long hole in the web? The alate was first trapped at the top. Coffee approached cautiously and decided not to bite it. Instead, she broke the web at the sides of the ant and the ant fell down to the next step.

She kept doing this and the ant kept tumbling down, each time increasingly trapped by the broken-off webbing. By the time it got to the bottom, it was helplessly trapped. Coffee did her usual wrapping just to play safe, delivered a quick bite, then ran home.

That is the most incredible thing I have witnessed so far. I have never seen this method of handling potentially dangerous prey!

I repeated the experiment with another ant 2 days later, and have confirmed it: she does this for very large ants. She doesn't even do it for crickets twice the size of that ant. Spiders continue to baffle me with how well-adapted they are to hunting insects, even for one who has lived in a tank all her life.

*Unauthorized expansion*

Coffee rebuilds her web really often, but rarely the whole thing at once. You can see an obvious line down the middle, and she'll replace it one half at a time. There is a little tuft of silk at the bottom when she's done, so she doesn't ingest it all.

Anyways she recently has been pulling some sneaky draglines out of her little area, which I promptly removed, but that does not seem to deter the little thing. Today I woke up to this.




She not only built her web higher, but extended a separate wing all the way to my monitor. Her hub still remains at the same spot, and she was at least nice enough to leave me a hole at the bottom so I can still reach the pantry. For now I can still accept this, but if she builds it any lower I might have to shift her to Pepper's old spot so she can build as gigantic a web as she likes.

That's about it for little Coffee, I am so glad to see she is growing up really well, she's also getting a little less shy so there's that. I have slowed her feeding to once every 3 days now, but even so she seems to be getting fat quickly. She's a perfectionist like her mom, and rebuilds almost everytime her web gets a little damaged.

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## Charliemum (Apr 8, 2021)

Coffee is such a hard little worker I love her little unauthorised extention such skill in web building.  I am in awe. Another brilliant addition to your thread Lee can't wait to read more. Oh and that vid of her molting perfect.

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## The Snark (Apr 8, 2021)

Winged ants are tainted with formic acid. Most spiders know better than to eat or even handle them. I've watched geckos give swarming ants a miss or mistakenly biting one then spitting it out.

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## Ah Lee (Apr 9, 2021)

The Snark said:


> Winged ants are tainted with formic acid. Most spiders know better than to eat or even handle them. I've watched geckos give swarming ants a miss or mistakenly biting one then spitting it out.


She still eats them happily though. The only food she has reject so far is the day-flying moth (Amata huebneri).




I caught 2 and fed her both on 2 separate occasions, she immediately cut them loose and threw them away. I guess they are pretty unpalatable?


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## Ah Lee (Apr 9, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> Coffee is such a hard little worker I love her little unauthorised extention such skill in web building.  I am in awe. Another brilliant addition to your thread Lee can't wait to read more. Oh and that vid of her molting perfect.


Thank you Charliemum, yes she is an amazing little worker! I just realized there is no easy way for me to reach the stuff behind though, so I've moved them all out and that is now officially Coffee territory. I'm only allowing this because she's adorable

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## Ah Lee (Apr 16, 2021)

*Sneaky color change*

I haven't seen Coffee much lately as she's satiated and mostly hiding, but just before bed i checked on her and there she was, looking really fab.




Her blacks have gotten really black, and her yellow has turned really orange now. She's quite a looker! She's quite different from mom, who has a brown abdomen and greyish carapace. I really dig Coffee's look though!

I bribed her with a moth this morning so she'll come out and we can have some nice photos in the morning sun.




Her web is really well-maintained now, it's a huge orb with a very obvious funnel to her hidey-hole, and lots of trip-wires everywhere, so photography is painful as usual, but so worth it.

In other news, the CEO has shifted. She'll probably be done tomorrow so I'll take some photos and report a lil on her. Till then!

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## Charliemum (Apr 17, 2021)

Awww coffee looks amazing and I can't wait to see what peppers done. I honestly look forward to this thread Lee it's brilliant

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## Ah Lee (Apr 18, 2021)

*Back to the good ol' office*

The new company location didn't seem to please Pepper much. The human slave is always either playing music or gaming, and complaining about poo on his computer.

Pepper decided to close the office down, and like all responsible CEOs, she ate the company. First she ate the hub. Then the anchor lines. Then the barrier web. Some lines she just cut, and one ended up on Coffee's web, which an annoyed Coffee promptly removed.

It was a very clean job, and by the time she was done only a few lines remained.

She made the great journey again, right back to where she started.




It's a good thing I didn't move the UV light, she's now parked back right in front of it. Again she has built the same kind of web, the ones with really large holes, and its about the size of the one she built as a kid.

She's really skinny from her egg-laying, so I fed her a butterfly and a dragonfly, and she's looking better now.




Her colors have really darkened since her last molt, but when lit from behind, her reds still really pop.




Her coloration still really baffles me, I have never seen this color morph in the wild before, especially not the half-gold carapace.

*Getting closer to an answer*

Last month I had the chance to see Pepper rebuild her web, and I think I have a better idea of what's going on.

This is her building her web.






And this is her attempting to fill them in afterwards.






You can see she's attempting to do something, but no silk is coming out. All I see afterwards is a little bit of glue/web wherever she tried to weave.

So could it be that she cannot weave a proper web anymore? And why? Possibly something missing in her diet? I can't think of what an orbweaver might eat that I am not providing, but pollen is once again high on my list of suspicions.

I am supplementing her diet with pollen-laced insects now. I've been doing it for the last week, so I'll keep observing if it makes any difference.

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## Charliemum (Apr 18, 2021)

I hope it helps Lee and that she can web again soon hopefully she is just tiered from her egg laying.

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## The Snark (Apr 18, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> So could it be that she cannot weave a proper web anymore? And why? Possibly something missing in her diet? I can't think of what an orbweaver might eat that I am not providing, but pollen is once again high on my list of suspicions.
> 
> I am supplementing her diet with pollen-laced insects now. I've been doing it for the last week, so I'll keep observing if it makes any difference.


I've looked for proper research for this in the past. Nothing. Just conjectures and assumptions. It looks like you are in for the long haul. The 'unable to make certain web' tests. It needs to be reliably repeated with specimens of the same species. Most likely not all of them will have this fail so you will need to test enough subjects to reach a reliable >more than 50%...<. Once you have predictable fails in a majority you can start doing comparative analysis within the species until you get predictable test results pertaining to age or sex or environment or diet or whatever. All about finding the common denominator. Once you find that you can start working on actual tests that either prolong the function of the particular spinneret or shorten it's useful period. Then the question will arise as to whether your derived data applies to different species which will, in turn, potentially provide information on the genus.
Best of luck and keep documenting!

Don't forget, you must use critical analysis. All non repeatable results must be discarded no matter how unusual / interesting along with the top and bottom 10% - as in this case, always happens vs never happens. You aren't researching particular animals but producing data applicable to all of the same species or of the same species under circumstance X. All about finding the common denominator.

If you manage to derive the required data I'd be willing to help you write a white paper submission. If it ever comes to that the paper will inevitably get shot in the arse by the fuddy duddys. That's actually good! You managed to get their attention and their reasons for shooting down your research are your very best friends in improving and refining your data. At that point science students will be happy to come to your aid. Nothing beats getting your name as a co-author or contributor on an accepted white paper for an undergrad or someone slogging away on their doctorate. 

PS BTW, don't get intimidated by all the academic glurp. You can always crank out a clinical study paper which is restricted or limited and doesn't need to meet all the criteria of a full blown white paper. Clinical studies are often used as parts of white papers as references. Clinical studies are most often used in tests of drug efficacy or side effects but can be applicable to any scientific fact finding effort.

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## Charliemum (Apr 19, 2021)

The Snark said:


> I've looked for proper research for this in the past. Nothing. Just conjectures and assumptions. It looks like you are in for the long haul. The 'unable to make certain web' tests. It needs to be reliably repeated with specimens of the same species. Most likely not all of them will have this fail so you will need to test enough subjects to reach a reliable >more than 50%...<. Once you have predictable fails in a majority you can start doing comparative analysis within the species until you get predictable test results pertaining to age or sex or environment or diet or whatever. All about finding the common denominator. Once you find that you can start working on actual tests that either prolong the function of the particular spinneret or shorten it's useful period. Then the question will arise as to whether your derived data applies to different species which will, in turn, potentially provide information on the genus.
> Best of luck and keep documenting!
> 
> Don't forget, you must use critical analysis. All non repeatable results must be discarded no matter how unusual / interesting along with the top and bottom 10% - as in this case, always happens vs never happens. You aren't researching particular animals but producing data applicable to all of the same species or of the same species under circumstance X. All about finding the common denominator.
> ...


Is it OK if I ask a question I am new to t's n spiders is it usual for a spider to "run out" of web I have never seen/heard this before? Just because you seem to know your stuff and honestly it seems mad to me that a spider could just "run out"  as I said total noob so don't worry if you don't want to answer or explain in layman's terms am just curious. Can something like pollen missing from a diet really make that much difference? I know they are golden orb weavers maybe the pollen is what makes the golden hue to their web? Again a noob and curious lol


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## The Snark (Apr 19, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> Is it OK if I ask a question I am new to t's n spiders is it usual for a spider to "run out" of web I have never seen/heard this before? Just because you seem to know your stuff and honestly it seems mad to me that a spider could just "run out" as I said total noob so don't worry if you don't want to answer or explain in layman's terms am just curious.


Legit question. However, it isn't just 'web'. Spiders can produce several kinds of web from up to, I think, 8 spinnerets. The 'nozzles' of the spinnerets can control and eject web anywhere from an ultra precision high density stream as with the guy lines of Latrodectus on out to a fluffy almost fog like web that aids in ballooning dispersal of spiderlings. Then the web may be eaten and the protein assimilated and used over again, or, as in the case of some orb weavers, an ultra high nutrition glop and energy booster left in the center of the web for some rejuvenation upon web completion. And then of course, the webs of all spiders, even the spiders that don't make web traps or hides, is very commonly used as utility ropes for all sorts of mundane applications.
So to answer your question, no simple answer. It could be anything from normal and natural to needing a change of diet on out to a genetic defect handed down from the primal spider, and everything in between. @Ah Lee has gone sleuthing, trying out the basics first.

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## Charliemum (Apr 19, 2021)

The Snark said:


> Legit question. However, it isn't just 'web'. Spiders can produce several kinds of web from up to, I think, 8 spinnerets. The 'nozzles' of the spinnerets can control and eject web anywhere from an ultra precision high density stream as with the guy lines of Latrodectus on out to a fluffy almost fog like web that aids in ballooning dispersal of spiderlings. Then the web may be eaten and the protein assimilated and used over again, or, as in the case of some orb weavers, an ultra high nutrition glop and energy booster left in the center of the web for some rejuvenation upon web completion. And then of course, the webs of all spiders, even the spiders that don't make web traps or hides, is very commonly used as utility ropes for all sorts of mundane applications.
> So to answer your question, no simple answer. It could be anything from normal and natural to needing a change of diet on out to a genetic defect handed down from the primal spider, and everything in between. @Ah Lee has gone sleuthing, trying out the basics first.


Wow I knew spiders had more than one sort of web eg webs and egg sacks , but I had no idea it was that many. How interesting, and now you have said it it only makes sense that it would be something missing in their diet or a genetic thing  makes me wonder if she is a natural hybrid like Lee thinks and this has played a part in her lack of web or if it is just something as simple as pollen. I am definitely interested in what Lee finds out. And thank you very much for answering me so quickly

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## The Snark (Apr 19, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> that it would be something missing in their diet or a genetic thing


Or or or... One very common alteration in webbing is age. For example she no longer needs a fine web to catch gnats as she has graduated to huge butterflies. Hopefully @Ah Lee will find out.
As a footnote, I'm fascinated by Nephila as I'm surrounded by them. But I've always observed them in situ which makes it extremely difficult to assess individual capabilities. I saw one yesterday that apprently went out of it's way to build a web over a lake. Why? Decided to try out being a long jaw orb weaver?

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## Charliemum (Apr 19, 2021)

The Snark said:


> Or or or... One very common alteration in webbing is age. For example she no longer needs a fine web to catch gnats as she has graduated to huge butterflies. Hopefully @Ah Lee will find out.
> As a footnote, I'm fascinated by Nephila as I'm surrounded by them. But I've always observed them in situ which makes it extremely difficult to assess individual capabilities. I saw one yesterday that apprently went out of it's way to build a web over a lake. Why? Decided to try out being a long jaw orb weaver?


All spiders fascinate me unfortunately here in the uk we don't get such beautifully coloured and large spiders but I still find watching them fascinating and am keen to find out more . It is interesting that it could also be down to age it never occurred to me that if a spider eats bigger pray it doesn't need such a fine web.... very interesting stuff ... I hope Lee can find something more on it  been looking at web info myself this morning as I wanted to know more about this subject after reading this and talking to you  I keep some of my native spiders so defiantly info I am interested in . I will definitely be paying more attention to the webs now to see if any of my webbing spiders exhibit this ie different web patterns as they age , or for different pray etc. Sorry a bit over enthusiastic lol . I just have always found webs to be beautiful and have always been interested in the different styles  of webs and why different spiders build the structures they do.

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## The Snark (Apr 19, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> Sorry a bit over enthusiastic


Absolutely nothing wrong with enthusiasm, unless you're playing with HNO3 mixed with H2SO4, or similar. When it comes to webs, they can tell you all sorts of things about the spider. The pholcid web, no sticky lines. Just a tangle of webs that happen to be perfectly suited for a spider with very long legs to adeptly maneuver about in enabling it to capture prey. The sheet web. A made to order race track enabling a spider to move faster than a skittish fly can take off. Communal webs that confuse and intimidate predators. Webs with ornamentation that serve as camouflage. Some spiders even make a special web area that is used as a trash can. And lots more.
Spiders are flat out amazing animals.

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## Charliemum (Apr 19, 2021)

They most certainly are the more I find out the more enchanted I become. I have a Tegeneria that has a sheet web but also puts dirt in it when she's due a moult , changed its shape from cone to ramp when I changed her food from fruit flys to crickets as she got bigger, and also has a specific place she goes to the loo as it where and dumps her left overs too. Truly amazing creatures  much more complex than you would think .

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## The Snark (Apr 19, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> Truly amazing creatures  much more complex than you would think .


Here's a topic for you to chew on; spider sensory abilities. You can start with your sheet webber. Their web is an acoustic machine that transmits vibrations. As with many spiders, Agelenid eyesight is pretty poor. Able to detect light and shadow and usually movement, but not much more. A sheet web is like a pond. Something touching the web it sends direct and reflected vibrations to the spider like ripples from a rock tossed into the pond. It's brain has a built in geometrical computer that gives the spider the general location of the disturbance in the web. Enough information for it to make a fast dash and get within the requisite inch or two where it's eyesight can take over. Of course, when it's running it can't sense vibrations from the web so it has to make these calculations before hand. This is the reason sheet web spiders often make little dashes then stop, often retreating again into the hide. The disconnect period between computed calculations and it's eyesight taking over.
The web is an intrinsic sensory organ extension for many, likely most obligatory web hunters.
Then you have salticids, huge eyes and over half it's brain cavity dedicated to vision.
The lycosid, average vision but setae on it's legs with remarkable vibration sensitivity replacing visual acuity.
The apex hunter of the cob web, the latrodectus. Vision sucks, web a shambles, but a top flight expert and wrangling and webbing it's prey once it has located it. It's capture method is just three web lines that have sticky which helps it narrow down and locate it's prey.
...

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## Ah Lee (Apr 19, 2021)

The Snark said:


> I've looked for proper research for this in the past. Nothing. Just conjectures and assumptions. It looks like you are in for the long haul. The 'unable to make certain web' tests. It needs to be reliably repeated with specimens of the same species. Most likely not all of them will have this fail so you will need to test enough subjects to reach a reliable >more than 50%...<. Once you have predictable fails in a majority you can start doing comparative analysis within the species until you get predictable test results pertaining to age or sex or environment or diet or whatever. All about finding the common denominator. Once you find that you can start working on actual tests that either prolong the function of the particular spinneret or shorten it's useful period. Then the question will arise as to whether your derived data applies to different species which will, in turn, potentially provide information on the genus.
> Best of luck and keep documenting!
> 
> Don't forget, you must use critical analysis. All non repeatable results must be discarded no matter how unusual / interesting along with the top and bottom 10% - as in this case, always happens vs never happens. You aren't researching particular animals but producing data applicable to all of the same species or of the same species under circumstance X. All about finding the common denominator.
> ...


Wow, thank you for this @The Snark ! To be honest I've never thought that whatever I might be doing will be of importance scientifically. Mainly because I have very few subjects, in uncontrolled, unstable environments. I mostly just try to replicate natural conditions as best as I can, in the hopes that I can let my spiders lead happy lives. And document everything here both to share my excessive excitement about them, and hopefully help future orbweaver owners out and even grow this side of the hobby a little.

I don't see myself having enough free-roamers in my room to have enough data to qualify as a study, but I do hope I do stumble upon something significant enough that will improve the lives of any future spiders I keep, and maybe even trigger a study by someone who has the knowledge and resources to further my hypothesis.

It's always been my dream to contribute to this hobby in a good way, so I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully one day I'll have to PM you to discuss said paper 

Till then, I really want to let you know I really appreciate all the knowledge you had been sharing here. Like you I have an affinity for the Nephila family too, they are easily my favorite spiders!



Charliemum said:


> Is it OK if I ask a question I am new to t's n spiders is it usual for a spider to "run out" of web I have never seen/heard this before? Just because you seem to know your stuff and honestly it seems mad to me that a spider could just "run out"  as I said total noob so don't worry if you don't want to answer or explain in layman's terms am just curious. Can something like pollen missing from a diet really make that much difference? I know they are golden orb weavers maybe the pollen is what makes the golden hue to their web? Again a noob and curious lol


That is a legit question, and from my observations, I would say it is not usual for a spider to run out of web, but definitely possible since it is a physical resource.

Pepper was really skinny when I brought her home, and some of Coffee's siblings were really malnourished as well from Coffee straling their food. I'm talking like shrivelled abdomen, looking close to dying kind of skinny. But even so, all of them still had the ability to produce web and even build a complete orbweb. It really is amazing how much web can come out of something that looks like its dying.

I do not know how much spare nutrition a spider can put into producing silk, but my guess is that since for many orbweavers a web is their only way of catching food, it's highly possible that they will divert every possible bit of nutrition to producing silk if they can.

In short, I think the only time when they stop producing silk, is when they literally starve to death.

As to the gold in Nephila silk, I am not sure what gives it that hue, and supplementing pollen in Pepper's diet is just me trying to replicate everything a Nephila might have in the wild.

I feed her a varied diet of common butterflies, dragonflies and crickets. I mist twice a day. She had access to natural sunlight when she was at my computer desk. That's why I felt the only thing that might be missing is what naturally falls on her web. I hardly think she'll be crunching dried leaves so my next logical guess would be pollen. If that doesn't work, it's time to start brainstorming again!



Charliemum said:


> All spiders fascinate me unfortunately here in the uk we don't get such beautifully coloured and large spiders but I still find watching them fascinating and am keen to find out more . It is interesting that it could also be down to age it never occurred to me that if a spider eats bigger pray it doesn't need such a fine web.... very interesting stuff ... I hope Lee can find something more on it  been looking at web info myself this morning as I wanted to know more about this subject after reading this and talking to you  I keep some of my native spiders so defiantly info I am interested in . I will definitely be paying more attention to the webs now to see if any of my webbing spiders exhibit this ie different web patterns as they age , or for different pray etc. Sorry a bit over enthusiastic lol . I just have always found webs to be beautiful and have always been interested in the different styles  of webs and why different spiders build the structures they do.


Well I love your enthusiasm! And I do agree that spider webs are much, much more complex than we give them credit for. I used to just think they are simple orbwebs when I was younger, but I'm beginning to see how a lot of consideration is taken before the web is actually built. There's always a reason when they do something, it's not as random as I thought. The highlight of my day is always coming home and seeing what the little employees have been up to.

And by the way, I have been kicked out of my room because the CEO is rebuilding her web, and that means nobody is allowed in. Ridiculous, she just built it 3 days ago!

*Preparing the new intern's office*

Today I released the last of Skittle's babies, in preparation of the arrival of Pepper's kids.




I hope the headstart I had given them would last them to adulthood, it's all up to them now. Go forth and expand SWDC!

I cleared out the cage, and dug through Coffee's massive pile of fruit fly carcasses.




The number of fruit flies that must die for one spider to reach adolescence is incredible. I managed to find her molts, from when she was a speck of dust till when she left the cage. Here's a photo with a USB stick for comparison.




The old steel mesh is really rusty and full of pollen and badly drilled holes from my feeding attempts, and I tore it out and rebuilt one with plastic mesh. This time I built the feeding hole in the middle so hopefully I get a more even dispersion of fruit flies.








Again I opted for a TP substrate for better monitoring of the kid's health. I'll get some new sticks because the old ones are full of webbing. I think my hot glue skills have improved greatly though!




I took a photo of Pepper's eggsac today, some of them are turning black, I sincerely hope that it's just their coloration and not the eggsac turning bad. I kept the humidity a bit higher than Skittle's eggsacs, because Nephila eggsacs are laid in soil so I'll assume they are a little more sensitive to dessication than Nephilengys'. The surrounding TP is pristine with no signs of mold, so fingers crossed!

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## Charliemum (Apr 19, 2021)

Coffees little moults are so cute and I love that you will let Pepper kick you out of the room I love that you respect your spiders the way you do I do not know anyone that would go through the effort you go through for your girls. As I said I don't know loads about spiders I am a noob but I do hope you are able to find the cause for Peppers "lack" of web or that it was just a one off because she was tiered  

And Snark you blew my mind I have been discussing it with family most of the afternoon  how cool that spiders use vibration to see long distances as it were, (at least on their web) I will definitely be doing more sleuthing on these subjects  thank you for the amazing information your one cool person


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## The Snark (Apr 19, 2021)

@Ah Lee Love that molt anthology picture. More poster material for some wall.



Charliemum said:


> how cool that spiders use vibration to see long distances as it were,


And now we stroll over to the vast science of energy transmission and wavelength propagation. Got your 4G or 5G phone handy? A gigahertz.. 1 billion. 1,000,000,000. Ultra Ultra High Frequency energy transmission, UHF. Pie in the sky impossible less than 40 years ago.
Swing on over to the other end of the spectrum. All the way down. ULF. Ultra Low Frequency. Down at and even below the range of human hearing. Whale songs. Seismic clicks and crunches as tectonic plates grind together. Energy transmission all the same. The spider doesn't have auditory capability. The outer, middle and inner ear far more sophisticated than arachnids could develop. Instead, they have little wands sticking out in various directions, just like the antenna on your car. And each of these wands is attached to a flexible tissue that allows it to move slightly. In that tissue are several kinds of neurons, nerve cells, that detect the motion of the wand as energy transmitted through the air strikes it producing microvolts of electricity that the neurons report to a ganglia network in the spider brain.
Ganglia network:  '_Ganglia is a scalable, distributed monitoring tool for high-performance computing systems, clusters and networks.' _Lacking an advanced brain, some spiders developed this network. A primitive form of a computer system used in simple autonomic triangulation equations. Multiple wands, setae, detect energies, and give the spider a crude, primitive, three dimensional image of the environment surrounding it. An insect slowly crawls along. Some of that motion disturbs air molecules which bang into each other and the setae detects them, alerting the spider to a threat, or possibly a dinner. The lycosid typifies an apex of sorts, of this motion detection system. The setae arrayed over it's legs combined with it's near 360 degree vision makes it a very capable predator. Many other spiders have developed and use setae motion detection systems which can be approximated by the number of setae and their placement on the spider.

Speaking of complex ganglia networks, I got Magnus Carlsen doing a banter blitz in another window. Time to go confuse myself.

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## Ungoliant (Apr 20, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> I took a photo of Pepper's eggsac today, some of them are turning black, I sincerely hope that it's just their coloration and not the eggsac turning bad.


Those are just the developing slings.

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## Charliemum (Apr 20, 2021)

The Snark said:


> @Ah Lee Love that molt anthology picture. More poster material for some wall.
> 
> 
> And now we stroll over to the vast science of energy transmission and wavelength propagation. Got your 4G or 5G phone handy? A gigahertz.. 1 billion. 1,000,000,000. Ultra Ultra High Frequency energy transmission, UHF. Pie in the sky impossible less than 40 years ago.
> ...


That amazing . So it's kind of like having a 3d pic in their mind that they can feel/see you move if you are in if you are in their range ie on their Web? Or can they sense past the web? Sorry I keep asking more questions lol you started something off and I must know more ... who knew webs were food,  traps, homes, a map, and a communication device , its a Swiss army web  the spider tool for all occasions


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## The Snark (Apr 20, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> So it's kind of like having a 3d pic in their mind that they can feel/see you move if you are in if you are in their range ie on their Web? Or can they sense past the web?


A 3D picture. Similar to the hearing ability of animals but omnidirectional. The reception distance would depend a great deal on the neural sensitivity and Sympathetic Resonance of the setae which in turn depends on their length. I'm avoiding wavelength propagation here which is yet another complex aspect of the physics involved. The Doppler effect may also come into play which could inform the spider the speed and direction a sound source is moving in.





						Sympathetic resonance - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org
				

















						Doppler effect - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org

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## Charliemum (Apr 20, 2021)

The Snark said:


> A 3D picture. Similar to the hearing ability of animals but omnidirectional. The reception distance would depend a great deal on the neural sensitivity and Sympathetic Resonance of the setae which in turn depends on their length. I'm avoiding wavelength propagation here which is yet another complex aspect of the physics involved. The Doppler effect may also come into play.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Wow thanks for the vid links that's so awesome of you it's so amazing the way they use sound/vibrations/air movement to see . I adore the thought of musical spiders   Thank you so much for taking time to explain something so complicated to a noob I very much appreciate it.


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## The Snark (Apr 20, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> Thank you so much for taking time to explain something so complicated to a noob I very much appreciate it.


Two things here. Hopefully I'm explaining simply enough without sounding like I'm talking down to you. The other things is, scientific information like what an animal uses in it's day to day life can be taught to children at a very early age. If explained properly it can awaken a child (or adults) interest in science, enabling them to be discerning and employ critical thinking. Critical thinking frees the mind and is behind each and every major scientific discovery. Something as simple as a spider covers a solid dozen different aspects of science and can show a child in basic understandable ways how scientific principles aren't complex glurp on blackboards or spouted in lectures but tools we can use every day to better understand the world we live in.

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## Charliemum (Apr 20, 2021)

The Snark said:


> Two things here. Hopefully I'm explaining simply enough without sounding like I'm talking down to you. The other things is, scientific information like what an animal uses in it's day to day life can be taught to children at a very early age. If explained properly it can awaken a child (or adults) interest in science, enabling them to be discerning and employ critical thinking. Critical thinking frees the mind and is behind each and every major scientific discovery. Something as simple as a spider covers a solid dozen different aspects of science and can show a child in basic understandable ways how scientific principles aren't complex glurp on blackboards or spouted in lectures but tools we can use every day to better understand the world we live in.


No you don't read like your talking down more like explaining a passion  I am 35 and I found it fascinating so did my 7 year old son and my 57 year old mum  I think it's brilliant that spiders can help with all sorts of science for all levels of knowledge adults kid professor or noob alike. Truly amazing. I have only been actively learning about spiders for about a year and 5 months and the more I learn the more amazed I become and the more I want to learn  again thank you for your time and answers . I will stop bugging you now but I may ask more later lol . Thanks.


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## The Snark (Apr 20, 2021)

And back to the Pepper predicament. @Ah Lee I briefly caught up with a scientist friend for a moment. He summed up what we already know. " You're guessing in the dark. Isolated incidents. You have nothing without repeatability."
So you might want to warn your significant other you will need to raised five or ten generations with a good selection of each generation. Shoot for 10 or 20 of each. 
On the bright side, on down the road if you ever need to offer proof you may be mentally challenged, say, make a case for possible dementia onset, you will have plenty of proof.

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## Ah Lee (Apr 21, 2021)

Ungoliant said:


> Those are just the developing slings.


Awww yes!! Thank you for that, you have no idea how much of a relief this is. They should be ready to pop soon if all goes well!



The Snark said:


> And back to the Pepper predicament. @Ah Lee I briefly caught up with a scientist friend for a moment. He summed up what we already know. " You're guessing in the dark. Isolated incidents. You have nothing without repeatability."
> So you might want to warn your significant other you will need to raised five or ten generations with a good selection of each generation. Shoot for 10 or 20 of each.
> On the bright side, on down the road if you ever need to offer proof you may be mentally challenged, say, make a case for possible dementia onset, you will have plenty of proof.


Dementia would be the least of my worries. I'm pretty sure my wife would have poisoned my coffee by then 

It's time to take a hike soon though. Take a closer look at their webs, their environment. I'm pretty sure I will be able to find out something!


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## Ungoliant (Apr 21, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> Awww yes!! Thank you for that, you have no idea how much of a relief this is. They should be ready to pop soon if all goes well!


When they molt in the egg sac, you can sometimes see them darkening beforehand.

I have some _Trichonephila clavipes_ sacs outside that I am monitoring.  I rescued the mother from winter, and before she passed, she made two sacs she would not have been able to make otherwise.  The slings should emerge within the next few weeks, I hope.

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## Ah Lee (Apr 23, 2021)

Ungoliant said:


> When they molt in the egg sac, you can sometimes see them darkening beforehand.
> 
> I have some _Trichonephila clavipes_ sacs outside that I am monitoring.  I rescued the mother from winter, and before she passed, she made two sacs she would not have been able to make otherwise.  The slings should emerge within the next few weeks, I hope.


I am jelly, the T.clavipes is a really pretty species, especially with the furry legs. Fingers crossed!

*Another shot in the dark*

I've been trying to read up as much as I can regarding orbweavers for the past few days, and there is so much info that I'm trying to absorb, and even arachnologists do not know everything about these fascinating creatures yet.

I took my trip today to go look at some Nephila webs in the wild, trying to figure out what else I can do to replicate their natural diet as much as possible. From someone who is merely a hobbyist, the best I can do is to try replicate wild conditions the best I can.

Part of my research seems to suggest that spider webs and a spider's chance at survival is not as dependent on regular, small prey as I thought. Instead, they are extremely dependent on a rare event: the capture of a rare/large insect.

For a wild specimen, this rare event usually dictates their survival and reproduction success. This rare/large insect can provide 60 days worth of nutrition of small insects. Well, Pepper definitely isn't starving, but how crucial is this event really?

So I was looking for a large insect that is rare, but isn't too rare either because Nephilas seem to thrive in the forests I frequent. Something that is widespread enough that Nephilas all over the globe have access too. I tried thinking about what is was, but it was hard to concentrate with all those cicadas chriping loudly amongst trees.

Cicadas chirping loudly amongst the trees...

*CICADAS CHIRPING LOUDLY AMONGST THE TREES.*




Here we go, my shot in the dark for the day. Worth a shot, ain it? In any case Pepper went mad for it. It was huge and struggled really wildly while chirping, but Pepper went straight for it and subdued it. At the very least, she seems to love it!




Skittles gets one too. Again for such a large insect, I am surprised at how willingly Skittles attacked it head-on. Both of them are happily munching away now, so that's it for now!

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## The Snark (Apr 23, 2021)

Paradox. Very short lived and ideal prey for a neph. Conversely, the large cicadas often destroy large swaths of a neph web and can maim or even kill the spider.  I've had them draw blood when I wrangle them to save them from the attention of our cats. Similar to grabbing a miniature chain saw.


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## Ah Lee (Apr 23, 2021)

The Snark said:


> Paradox. Very short lived and ideal prey for a neph. Conversely, the large cicadas often destroy large swaths of a neph web and can maim or even kill the spider.  I've had them draw blood when I wrangle them to save them from the attention of our cats. Similar to grabbing a miniature chain saw.


Yes they do feel really powerful, especially the male! Luckily for the employees of SWDC, prey usually meets the door really hard before meeting them. Sometimes twice.

I have gained the dexterity to be able to weaken most of them without killing them outright. When I first started many of them just went splat, or just flew away laughing.

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## The Snark (Apr 23, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> I have gained the dexterity to be able to weaken most of them without killing them outright. When I first started many of them just went splat, or just flew away laughing.


That's my big problem; my fine motor skills are shot. Gone, zip. Attempting to rescue a small critter requires I use a medium like a cloth or tissue, or let my wife do it. (Being a Hmong jungle girl she's a pro at catching critters anyway.)


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## Ungoliant (Apr 24, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> I am jelly, the T.clavipes is a really pretty species, especially with the furry legs. Fingers crossed!


I consider myself fortunate that they are native to my area.  Unfortunately, ever since the county began carpet bombing the area with mosquito spray, they have become scarce.  I used to find them everywhere, with several large females in my yard alone, but now I am lucky to see a couple of them when walking for an hour.

Reactions: Sad 3


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## Ah Lee (Apr 27, 2021)

*The tired human slave*

SWDC's parent company has been fighting some financial issues lately, and I'm so burned out with work and stress I barely have time to watch the little employees much. But the rare few moments I do get to interact with them, I still love watching them do their thing, and checking on them in the morning is still my favorite part of the day.

After my experiment with the cicada, Pepper has just given up on all semblance of web-building, and sits happily on her damaged web, very satiated and probably feeling really lazy. I fed her another huge butterfly this morning, and I'm interested to see if another molt or eggsac is coming up.

Coffee is thriving. She still keeps her web in tip-top shape, and I still throw random midges into her web whenever I see them, on top of her usual cricket leg. She's still very shy, but pops out every now and then as I'm working.




Skittles is still the same ol' Skittles. She's absolutely porked out on the last cicada too, and doesn't hang out outside that much now.

The kids appear to be doing great! This is one of the things I am most looking forward to. Most of them are now black, and by my estimates I would say they will drop anytime this week if all goes well.




I am just so tired with human life now, I just wanna rest. I'll get over this lull soon like I always will. Hopefully in time to look after my new batch of babies!



Ungoliant said:


> I consider myself fortunate that they are native to my area.  Unfortunately, ever since the county began carpet bombing the area with mosquito spray, they have become scarce.  I used to find them everywhere, with several large females in my yard alone, but now I am lucky to see a couple of them when walking for an hour.


The sad fact of modernization. There are so few pristine places left on my little city state as well, but we're still lucky we still have a few nature reserves. With paved roads and benches, but oh well.

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## Charliemum (Apr 27, 2021)

I am glad the girls are OK as always you have done an amazing job and gone above and beyond to even catch their food but Lee you must take time for you! I know that is easier said than done with our busy human lifestyles but make sure, even if it's only listening to your favourite music on your way to work or sitting in a garden or park for 30 mins do something good for you. Sending good vibes for you and yours I hope you feel more like you soon

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## TwoTheSecond (May 3, 2021)

I've been reading through this forum the past few days and its been really cool to see your journey with these spiders! I'm excited to see what comes next, and I wish you luck and hope you are able to get some rest soon, stay strong!

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## Ah Lee (May 7, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> I am glad the girls are OK as always you have done an amazing job and gone above and beyond to even catch their food but Lee you must take time for you! I know that is easier said than done with our busy human lifestyles but make sure, even if it's only listening to your favourite music on your way to work or sitting in a garden or park for 30 mins do something good for you. Sending good vibes for you and yours I hope you feel more like you soon


Thanks as always @Charliemum ! I've been doing ok, working 2 jobs now to keep my business going, I'll pull through! Spending time with my girls is always the favorite part of my day, and I'm lucky they are literally just hanging around my office 



TwoTheSecond said:


> I've been reading through this forum the past few days and its been really cool to see your journey with these spiders! I'm excited to see what comes next, and I wish you luck and hope you are able to get some rest soon, stay strong!


Thank you, and welcome to the SWDC thread (pun intended)!

*The elusive one*

So far I probably have the least photos of Skittles. That girl is really hard to photograph. She usually only hangs around outside when it's dark. When we turn on the lights she'll usually not be too bothered, but the slightest vibration and she runs away. Her cage is also in a corner of the room and my room has really bad lighting.

Anyways yesterday I woke up early and the sun was lighting her cage really nicely, and she was out. I fed her a cricket to pacify her, and finally got my shot!




Coffee looks very much like mommy Skittles now, I almost uploaded the wrong photo, but you can see mom has a different colored abdomen.

*Company updates*

It's been a very uneventful month at SWDC. Everyone is just being themselves, eating and not doing much. I predict May to be a much more exciting month.

Pepper has gotten really, really fat again. I'll take a photo of her tomorrow if I come home early, so I suspect a 2nd batch might be on the way. She has rebuilt her web 2 times now, eating the entire hub and rebuilding it, but it's still the same mysterious design. Oh well, as long as she's healthy, that's all I ask for.

Pepper's eggsac hasn't hatched yet. It's a little over 30 days now and I'm getting worried, but so far they don't seem to be going bad, so fingers crossed.

Coffee is my favorite little thing now. She's grown up so healthy, and is a lot less shy now so she hangs out beside my monitor just doing her thing. Her web is regularly maintained, almost every other day, and she seems to be happy keeping within her new boundaries.

She eats a lot, and really quickly. She currently has SWDC's first and only natural kill. An alate flew into the room and she caught and ate it. Way to go! I have no idea where she stores all her food, but that little butt looks close to exploding and she's still not molting. I expect her molt to be coming this week, we'll see!

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## Charliemum (May 7, 2021)

So glad your OK and feeling better well a bit lol just make sure you rest and as always lovely pic it's nice to see Skittles in her full glory  and I am sure Peppers eggs will be fine if they look good hopefully all will be well  I look forward to the next installation of SWDC

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## Ah Lee (May 12, 2021)

*Happy Mother's Day!*

And what a Mother's Day it's been this time at SWDC! The 2 mothers have really been keeping me busy, and this time I was lucky enough to witness them both laying their eggs.
*
Pepper's 2nd eggsac*

Pepper was eating a lot, and quickly looking really gravid. This is her just a day before she popped.




Yesterday she disappeared from her web, and I found her in a corner of my room. I decided to move her to the company hospital for her safety, and in about 5 hours she started displaying egg-laying behavior.

She started digging the tissue paper up. Interestingly, I just learnt only the Nephila pilipes do this, and many other Nephila species build hanging eggsacs.

I quickly set up my professional videography equipment: an iPhone stolen from my wife.




The entire process took about 4 hours, and I edited the video to cut it short, but watching her is amazing. She builds her eggsac so carefully and meticulously, building it strand by strand.






Once the eggsac was completed, I let her rest one night in the hospital, and the next time I put her back on her web.

I cut out the piece of tissue the eggsac was on, and laid it among a bed of vermiculite. I will assume it would be more natural to bury in in the vermiculite, but it would mean it's harder to monitor them, and I fear overwatering them.

In the end, I opted to place it on a little bottle cap.




I went with less holes than the other eggsac, hopefully ventilation will be enough that it doesn't become too soggy inside, but I'll keep a close watch and adjust as neccessary.

*Skittles' 6th eggsac*

Meanwhile, on the same day, Skittles has just had her 6th eggsac. That girl is not just a web-building machine, she's an egg-laying machine! She's easily SWDC's hardest worker.

I only managed to capture the end, but you can see how different their techniques are. Pepper uses her legs, while Skittles does a little butt wiggle. Skittles takes things one more level, and always covers her eggsac with some debri to help hide it from predators. Talk about meticulous!






The amount of effort both moms take to build their sacs is really amazing to watch, and they are always extremely skinny after that. I caught 6 butterflies today, and everyone had 2 including fat Coffee.
*
Coffee the omnomnom monster*

Coffee is an absolute monster. I have been feeding her larger prey now, and she eats all of them happily with no leftovers. She usually hides and doesn't respond to vibrations when she isn't hungry, but lately she's been out waiting every single night. I have no idea how that little butt can store so much dead insect, but it can.

Her she is tonight with 2 winged alates that flew into my room. She gets pampered so much because every time a random insect comes in, it's usually hers.



*
Pepper's first eggsac*

Pepper's first eggsac is still in incubation. It's taking longer than I thought, but I the only source that I found that mentions her species states that incubation is 30-60 days, as opposed to 20-30 days I read about for the other Nephilas, so still fingers are crossed!

The TP substrate has had a little mold growing in the corner, so I changed it out and replaced it with fresh vermiculite.

And that's about it! Everyone is really tired and malnourished now from the hard work (except Coffee, who is just pigging out), so we're all on leave and I'm gonna spend tomorrow catching big, juicy insects for the little employees.

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## Charliemum (May 13, 2021)

Wow Lee great vids the girls have worked so hard! and coffee looks so fat  but so glad she's been out more lately,  all those eggsacs your gunna be over run with baby spoodas.   enjoy your day off hinny you deserve it!

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## XxSpiderQueenxX (May 13, 2021)

Awesome thread, awesome, and very beautiful spooders! I wish I could find things like these in CA lol

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## MrGhostMantis (May 13, 2021)

XxSpiderQueenxX said:


> Awesome thread, awesome, and very beautiful spooders! I wish I could find things like these in CA lol


There are some pretty cool orb weavers in Cali actually. Ton of other sick trues and Ts too.

Great thread! I’m excited to see the baby Peppers!

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## Ah Lee (May 17, 2021)

XxSpiderQueenxX said:


> Awesome thread, awesome, and very beautiful spooders! I wish I could find things like these in CA lol


I'm giving away some of the slings if you ever are interested in some! Skittles' next batch should be hatching in 3 weeks time, and Pepper's should be in a few days, so let me know if you want a few and I'll be happy to send them your way.


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## XxSpiderQueenxX (May 17, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> I'm giving away some of the slings if you ever are interested in some! Skittles' next batch should be hatching in 3 weeks time, and Pepper's should be in a few days, so let me know if you want a few and I'll be happy to send them your way.


That would be awesome!


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## MrGhostMantis (May 17, 2021)

XxSpiderQueenxX said:


> That would be awesome!


Sadly it’s not possible. If you got caught shipping slings from somewhere in SE Asia to California you would get a heavy fine and the spider confiscated. Just an FYI.

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## XxSpiderQueenxX (May 17, 2021)

MrGhostMantis said:


> Sadly it’s not possible. If you got caught shipping slings from somewhere in SE Asia to California you would get a heavy fine and the spider confiscated. Just an FYI.


Ohh, I completely forgot about the legal issues.

Reactions: Sad 2


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## MrGhostMantis (May 17, 2021)

XxSpiderQueenxX said:


> Ohh, I completely forgot about the legal issues


If they weren’t there I would be shipping in every species of mantis I could find haha. Sadly it’s not a reality without a permit and you need to be 18 for those.

Edit: If you’re younger than 18 I’m pretty sure you can put in your parents age instead of yours.

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## Ah Lee (May 17, 2021)

*Photography!*

Recently I've really been wanting to get back into macro photography because it's something I really enjoy. I see a lot of cool stuff when catching food for the little employees, and it's a shame not to capture them.

I have a 13-year-old Nikon D80 and a Nikkor 60mm macro lens I picked up from a junkyard sale. Also a Sigma flash i picked up from a thrift store for my sister's wedding. Now all I needed was a good diffuser.

A few cable ties, 2 pairs of chopsticks and a dismantled aroma diffuser later, I had myself a really janky setup.






My wife laughed her head off at the sight of it, but I'm determined to prove it's worth.

Coffee was once again my test subject. Skittles is way too shy and Pepper doesn't look good without backlighting. I threw her a sacrificial grashopper and voila, my first successful shot!




Also Coffee looks like she's about to explode. I thought she was about to molt 2 weeks ago. Till today, she's still eating.

Armed with confidence and a half-reluctant wife, I set off to my usual hunting spot.

First shot was a dragonfly. It was kidnapped shortly after the shot, and is now in Skittles' mouth.




Another beautiful damselfly, it too was kidnapped after photo-taking for Pepper's dinner. I'm sorry beautiful wildlife, I'm being forced to do so, I'm not even paid!




Next up is a Bird Dung Spider. This amazing spider mimics bird dung to ambush flies and also stay hidden from predators.




A little while later I saw an ant. But it didn't move like an ant. I then realised it's an Ant Mimicking Sac Spider.




Hiding in a little leaf nest, I found a huntsman spider. The rain had flushed it out of it's hidey hole, and this allowed me to take some really good shots of it and practice my focus stacking. This image is created from a stack of 5 photos.




Next stage was a jumper. This one was much more difficult as it was constantly moving. I was also using manual focusing as my ancient camera's autofocus was crap, and the fact that I couldn't machinegun my shots as my flash was slow to recharge compounded the difficulty. Nevertheless I managed to get some good shots, and got these from 3 and 5 image stacks.






That's all for spiders, I also had a whole bunch of non-spiders which I'll post in the next post. EDIT: I decided against it. This is the other spiders and arachnid forum anyways, so I don't wanna go too off-topic.

So far I'm really pleased with the results of my budget janky setup. Hopefully I'll see some Nephilas the next time, we had a storm here which is probably why I didn't see any today.

Till next time!

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## MrGhostMantis (May 17, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> *Photography!*
> 
> Recently I've really been wanting to get back into macro photography because it's something I really enjoy. I see a lot of cool stuff when catching food for the little employees, and it's a shame not to capture them.
> 
> ...


Nice shots!

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## Ah Lee (May 17, 2021)

MrGhostMantis said:


> If they weren’t there I would be shipping in every species of mantis I could find haha. Sadly it’s not a reality without a permit and you need to be 18 for those.
> 
> Edit: If you’re younger than 18 I’m pretty sure you can put in your parents age instead of yours.


I forgot about the legal part as well, thanks for pointing it out! I had never shipped spiders before, but was always under the impression that they would even turn up on the x-rays.

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## Ah Lee (May 21, 2021)

*Hey there, good-looking!*

Stacey's Web Development Company has recently approved of the budget to buy a new camera lens for the human slave. CEO Pepper justified the purchase by saying it'll help the company's image, but we all know she just wants to look prettier.

The new lens is 90mm vs a 60mm I was using previously. This means I can now actually take some photos of Skittles with the glass doors closed. Lighting is still hard, but my new DIY flash diffuser still did a decent job.

I had the chance to take one shot, after which Skittles ran away in terrible fright. I think she looks really badass though. Like something about to eat Frodo and Sam.




Pepper also looks really fabulous with the new setup. The longer focal length and vibration control on the new lens means I can get closer, which was impossible last time because Pepper is too high up for a tripod.




I would really love to find a way to backlight her though. Her reds really only shine when light is coming from behind her. Also hopefully she flip around one day, because I want photos of that gorgeous gold crown.

Next up I'll get some nice close-ups of the girls eating, and hopefully the eggs will be hatching soon so there's that. Life is fun again!

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## Charliemum (May 21, 2021)

Amazing pics Lee I can't wait to see more

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## Ah Lee (May 25, 2021)

*Omnomnom*

It's been so quiet here at SWDC, everyone is just hanging out not doing very much. The most interesting thing that might happen all day is Coffee fixing her web, which the fastidous little thing does a lot.

Pepper the CEO is just enjoying CEO life, but still keeps her web reasonably well-maintained. It still has the massive gaps, but as of now I haven't had any ideas why she still does not spin a golden web. But she's reproducing, and seems really healthy, that's all that matters!

I decided to take the chance during the latest dinnertime to take some photos of Pepper. Today's menu is a dragonfly, served fresh with a dash of pollen.







I managed to get some nice shots of her half-gold carapace as she was wrapping up her prey. There seems to be significantly less gold now, and her abdomen has developed a strange brown stripe. Looks almost like a stretch mark from her getting gravid.




Coffee also didn't mind photography much. And gosh is she getting fat. I am just baffled how she is just getting so fat without molting. Normally she would have molted 5 meals ago. But yet here she is, still eating. Her abdomen is so large now, you can see it's indented near the rear legs so the rear legs can move.




Skittles, as usual, doesn't like photography, and grumpily dragged her dead butterfly back to her little hole to eat.

That's all for SWDC updates, it's really peaceful now, so hopefully the babies will hatch soon, because I'm just exploding with excitement!

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## Ah Lee (May 27, 2021)

*Mystery of the big-gapped web*




Last night Coffee repaired the middle section of her web, and strangely repaired it using Pepper's style: with huge gaping holes.

Today's sun is really strong and my window was open, so my hypothesis is that she was halfway through building and the sun came in and bothered her so she retreated.

If that is not the case though, then it really is something strange going on in my room. I'll have to observe her for a while to draw a conclusion. For all I know CEO Pepper is passing down instructions to her workers to make the same crappy web she does

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## The Snark (May 27, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> big-gapped web


Happens a lot in the wild. I just assume they run out of sticky line which no doubt uses more of their resources than the guy lines.

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## Ah Lee (May 27, 2021)

The Snark said:


> Happens a lot in the wild. I just assume they run out of sticky line which no doubt uses more of their resources than the guy lines.


That's what I felt was happening with Pepper and Stacey too. Makes sense because the sticky lines come from a completely different gland, and their composition is markedly different. The question is what then?

Coffee easily has the most varied diet. She gets midges, alates, katydids, grasshoppers, crickets, dragonflies and butterflies. And her mom, who is on a rather similar diet, still makes a normal web every other day.

This might just be a one-off event for Coffee, so again, nothing conclusive, but I'll keep looking out!


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## The Snark (May 27, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> This might just be a one-off event for Coffee, so again, nothing conclusive, but I'll keep looking out!





Ah Lee said:


> The question is what then?


Exactly. You're a pioneer, the chief researcher in an extended Nephila analysis program. Under ideal circumstances by observations............................
I'm certainly going to be using the knowledge I gained from your observations in my examining them in the wild. If nothing else we will learn the differences if any through comparisons.

By the way, how about providing them with foliage, vines or plants, to attach their webs to? I'd like to see if they web and curl up leaves for a hide like I've seen Clavata do.

PS Some interesting reading. Their methodology keeping the spiders may be of some use to you. https://appmicro.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s42649-020-00030-x

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## Ah Lee (Jun 14, 2021)

*SWDC June company update*

Hello everyone, and welcome to the most... uninteresting of company updates. I haven't been updating much here partly because nothing much is happening, but mostly because I have been working 9am - 11pm most days to try and bring my hooman company out of the red. And I have! So that's good news on the hooman side.

*Battle of the titans*

It's the season for gigantic Tropical Swallowtail Moths, the Lyssa zampa. They are beautiful, very majestic and are swarming now. They are also, according to Pepper, looking really delicious. The human slave has again been ordered to find one.




I found one, 6" in wingspan, just what the CEO ordered. It was pretty shaken by the time I got back, so I just threw it into Pepper's web. Part of the reason why I decided to feed Pepper such a large prey is because her web is really falling into disrepair, and without rain to destroy it, I figured a gigantic moth would help.




It didn't struggle nearly as much as I thought it would, but Pepper did struggle with it's weight, and the web was pretty much badly damaged. She finished her meal and repaired the web the next day. Success!

I am readying her for a 3rd eggsac now. Unfortunately I have lost the first 2. The first one just didn't hatch, and I lost the 2nd to mold. I will be building a new incubator with better ventilation, but I really am gutted at losing the first 2. There's also no info on breeding them that I can find, so I'm pretty much stabbing in the dark here.

*Coffee is exploding. Send help.*

Downstairs in Coffee's office, the previous big-gapped web was a false alarm. Coffee filled it in the next day with sticky webbing and all was normal.




She's really made this area her own. Her little lattice tunnel now is very well defined. And she comes out to hang out at the hub a lot more now. I usually try to reach the stuff behind the web through the bottom-righr corner, and usually bump into her web as I do. She has since removed that whole chunk so I can work easily now. Considerate!




She is going unnaturally long without a molt though. She is still eating, and still hanging out at her hub every night, waiting for prey. Her abdomen has engorged to the point of bursting, but yet she still moves with grace and speed. 




Her markings have gotten completely red now, something that is so subtle I did not notice because I see her everyday.

*SWDC's most productive worker*

In the other room, Skittles has just laid her 8th eggsac. I have no idea how she is so productive, but she is. She still moves with a lot of vigor, but she maintains a smaller web now, and it's not as neat as it usually is. Perhaps age is catching up to her, she's quite old in orbweaver years now.




I took the time to release her 7th batch. I might keep her 8th batch for a while when they do hatch, if only because it's been quiet here so it gives me something to do, and also so I can start finding Coffee a mate.

*New employee?*

I am also toying around with the idea of hiring a new employee for SWDC. Another orbweaver might be hard due to space constrains, but I found some lichen huntsman spiders which I was so tempted to keep, but again I wanted to make a perfect home for them before I take one home.




The other alternative is a tent-web spider. These will make for really interesting pets due to the incredible webs they create, but again I'm back to the problem of space!




I'll sleep on it, I'm not in a hurry, but working in SWDC as a human slave and keeping this thread updated honestly brings me more joy than working in the hooman company, so it might really be time to expand the company a lil!



The Snark said:


> Exactly. You're a pioneer, the chief researcher in an extended Nephila analysis program. Under ideal circumstances by observations............................
> I'm certainly going to be using the knowledge I gained from your observations in my examining them in the wild. If nothing else we will learn the differences if any through comparisons.
> 
> By the way, how about providing them with foliage, vines or plants, to attach their webs to? I'd like to see if they web and curl up leaves for a hide like I've seen Clavata do.
> ...


Their method seems very similar to another one I've read in a research paper, which involves the same type of "frame". I'll try to dig it up, but the scientists' way of rearing Nephilas involved rows of these frames, with vaseline-coated panels separating them. The frames are lined internally with black felt to allow the spider to climb and anchor more easily.

I would not keep my spiders this way, but I still find it amazing how they would web even in such unnatural conditions. Apparently they would also release a fly or 2 for the stubborn ones to entice them to web. This tells me that they do take prey availability as a deciding factor to web or not.

As for foliage, Pepper and Stacey both had access to lots of fake foliage, and have not observed that they had any interest in the leaves at all. In fact, they never wander off their hub for no reason. I've not seen any Nephilas do that in the wild either, but now that you mention it, I'll try to keep a look out!

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## Ah Lee (Jun 26, 2021)

*SWDC's new employee*

SWDC has been sending the human slave on hiking trips pretty often these days. It gives the human slave opportunities to photograph the local wildlife, and also capture delicious chow back for the employees. Pepper is gearing up for a third eggsac, Skittles is recovering from laying her 8th eggsac, and the company has decided to stuff Coffee silly until she finally molts.

The thought of hiring a new employee has always been an idea in my head, but last night I didn't have to decide anymore. I found a spider I had been searching for for years. Introducing...*dramatic drumroll*

*Workman's Werewolf Spider*
_Damarchus workmani_




I found her scuttling along the leaf litter and thought she was a huge cricket. She's about 5cm in legspan, I don't think they get much larger, but there's not much info on this species. They are pretty elusive, and don't wander out of their burrows very often.




She's very cooperative for photography, and doesn't move at all, but when she does she's really quick. Thankfully she can't climb smooth surfaces, so I managed to photograph her nicely.




I filled a really tall glass vase with soil, compacted it as hard as I could, and left her to it. Good thing is that I do not need a lid! The vase is now in a dark corner of my room, and I've already spotted a tiny burrow in it. I'll leave it in darkness so hopefully she'll make her burrow against the glass. I'll report back in a day or 2!




I am so excited to have found her, I'd been looking for her species since I was 13. I hope to find a male one day, and give their wild population a little boost, but for now I'm just gonna need a name for her!

Everyone else in the company isn't up to much. Coffee is still getting fatter, Pepper looks ready to drop her 3rd eggsac, Skittles is still recovering from laying her 8th. I still have hope that I can raise Pepper's eggsac, hopefully third time's the charm!

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## Charliemum (Jun 28, 2021)

She is amazing Lee !  Have you named her yet ? I think she should be named after a sharp tasting food as you already have Coffee, (bitter) Skittles, (sweet) and Pepper (spicy) . I look forward to finding out what you named her and as always to see what happens in the next installment of Stacey's Web Development Co

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## Ah Lee (Jul 1, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> She is amazing Lee !  Have you named her yet ? I think she should be named after a sharp tasting food as you already have Coffee, (bitter) Skittles, (sweet) and Pepper (spicy) . I look forward to finding out what you named her and as always to see what happens in the next installment of Stacey's Web Development Co


@Charliemum that is brilliant! I've never even noticed I did that   A sour or salty food sounds about right then! I'll mull over it, but in the meantime if you have any suggestions I'm all ears!


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## Charliemum (Jul 1, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> @Charliemum that is brilliant! I've never even noticed I did that   A sour or salty food sounds about right then! I'll mull over it, but in the meantime if you have any suggestions I'm all ears!


Kumquat for sour n not sure for salty  I am sure whatever you decide will be perfect for her Lee. Maybe you have a favourite sour or salty food?


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## schmiggle (Jul 1, 2021)

Charliemum said:


> She is amazing Lee !  Have you named her yet ? I think she should be named after a sharp tasting food as you already have Coffee, (bitter) Skittles, (sweet) and Pepper (spicy) . I look forward to finding out what you named her and as always to see what happens in the next installment of Stacey's Web Development Co





Ah Lee said:


> @Charliemum that is brilliant! I've never even noticed I did that   A sour or salty food sounds about right then! I'll mull over it, but in the meantime if you have any suggestions I'm all ears!


Gorgonzola, cheddar, gouda, stilton, miso, lemon

Reactions: Like 1


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## Ungoliant (Jul 7, 2021)

Ah Lee said:


> for now I'm just gonna need a name for her!





Ah Lee said:


> @Charliemum that is brilliant! I've never even noticed I did that   A sour or salty food sounds about right then! I'll mull over it, but in the meantime if you have any suggestions I'm all ears!


*Sour Candies*

Lemon Drop
Napoleon Sour
Sour Apple
Sour Ball
Sour Patch
Sour Punch
SweeTart
Warhead

*Other Salty, Savory, or Sour Foods*

Anchovy
Bacon
Cecina (salted meat)
Ceviche
Garum (Roman fish sauce)
Hambone
Jamón (Spanish ham)
Jerky
Kimchi
Peanut
Pickle
Pork Rind
Sauerkraut
Soybean or Soy
Vinegar
Worcestershire

Reactions: Like 2


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## Ah Lee (Jul 27, 2021)

*It's been a while, people!*

Hello Arachnoboards! It's been a long while since my last update, and unfortunately, that's because I have bad news.

Both Pepper and Skittles have passed away earlier in July. They died within a day of each other, so I was pretty down, which is why I had a long leave from this thread.

Skittles died of old age as far as I could tell. Like Stacey she just started slowing down, and one day just fell of her web. Even to the last day, her web was in immaculate as is befitting of the chief web designer. I would like to think she had a good life here at SWDC. She had laid a total of 9 eggsacs, and clearing her tank I was quite appalled at the number of dead insects within.

Pepper died of egg impaction. I am not sure if there was an external factor which caused it, or if it was just old age and she could not muster the strength to release her eggs. Either way, I saw her in a corner of the room laying down the foundation of her eggsac, and decided to leave her alone overnight. Ambient humidity is as it always is in a tropical country, hovering around 90%. The next day I saw her still on her eggsac with no egg in sight, so I knew there was trouble. I saw a bit of yellowish, hardened fluid at her epigastric furrow, so I moistened the area and removed it. That unfortunately did not help, and she passed away within a couple of hours.

I buried the both of them together in a spot near my home. I had decided that if I were to keep SWDC going, I cannot be creating little coffins for all of my deceased employees. It would be very bad for the environment they live in, so I just buried them as they were, to be one with nature again.

I also released the little trapdoor spider back where she came from. I had searched for a male for days without avail, and being as rare as they are, I really do not wish to decimate their population even further. So I fed her as much as I could, and released her back home so she can hopefully breed and have lots of kids. Then and maybe then, I might keep one again.




*Moving on*

As saddening as the loss of both of them is, I am determined to keep SWDC running. Caring for these little spiders is really the joy of my day, and I love coming home to their antics every day. The house is a little quieter now, but Coffee still is by my side day and night keeping me company.

My next phase of planning will probably involve a complete overhaul of the SWDC office. The morning sun comes in through the window of the left side everyday, so my first plan is to move my entire workstation to the right. This means that my next spider can have a nice, sunny spot to built her web.
The second plan is to remove the carpet and replace it with waterproof vinyl. I will move the wooden cabinets to the further end, away from the web-building corner. That will mean that I can probably get away with misting the spider more and keeping that corner a little more humid.

All these are plans for my next orbweaver, but for now it's all in the planning stages as I really do not have the heart to destroy Coffee's home and move her. That'll give me a bit more time to come up with a good design for a room where human, technology and spider can live together happily.

So for now, all you're going to be seeing is pictures of Coffee getting fat. I may have a new employee coming up, but I'll update y'all on that in a few days.

*Coffee the new CEO*

With things as they are, Coffee is now the new CEO of SWDC! I just observed a wild Nephilengys malabrensis (very possibly Skittles' kid) who has had 2 eggsacs already. I'm so happy the little population is doing well! But that particular specimen is smaller than Coffee, so I realised that Coffee might actually already be mature, which is why she isn't molting. It's strange though, because Skittles is much, much larger than them both. Perhaps they will have one or two post-maturity molts, but for now there is an urgency to find Coffee a mate. I have 2 babies with me that I am hoping might turn out to be male, or I might have to capture one.

That's about it for the update, it's a really wordy update with very little pictures because to be honest, I was not really in the mood to take pictures with all that was happening. But I'll see you again soon!

Reactions: Like 2 | Sad 2 | Optimistic 1


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## wonderful (Jul 28, 2021)

Congrats to the new CEO Coffee! I hope she has employees soon that she can boss around.  My condolences to you for your 2 babies, their lives were made the better because of you and any spider is lucky to have you watch over them.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Charliemum (Jul 30, 2021)

Lee what can I say but I am sorry for your losses they will be missed . My thoughts are with you and your wife I know she loved them as you did.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Ah Lee (Aug 20, 2021)

*Coffee's first video!*

Hello folks, I'm back!

I've been taking a lot of photos of wildlife lately, and I'm still contemplating if I should post some of them here, because it's a lot! With my new camera now being able to take videos as well, I decided to learn some videography and editing, and of course my first test subject is always Coffee.

So here it is, our first ever video. It's very basic but I'm just learning the controls of the camera for video, and how to do simple things like trim my audio and also overlay Sir David Attenborough on it 

It's been fun, I hope to come up with something better next time!




__ https://www.facebook.com/105977301736030/posts/132375889096171

Reactions: Love 2


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## Charliemum (Aug 20, 2021)

That was mint it was like watching a mini documentary all about Coffee  I love it Lee  my little boy n mum  loved it too congrats on your new found skill! I look forward to seeing more

Reactions: Like 1


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