# The Myrmekiaphila Information Thread



## Chris_Skeleton (Dec 2, 2011)

I'm starting this thread so I can keep up with all my info and observations on my Myrmekiaphila species of trapdoor spiders. There is little to no information currently so I hope I can find more and provide a resource for those who own or are looking for these spiders. The only ones I ever see for sale are the M. correyi, Florida Red Trapdoor, but maybe in the future I can attempt breeding some of my native species which I believe to be M. foliata. 

Here is some basic info.
A taxonomic review of the trapdoor spider genus Myrmekiaphila:
http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/handle/2246/5892

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmekiaphila

Bugguide:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/170331


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## Peter_Parker (Dec 3, 2011)

Did you collect the native ones yourself?  Perhaps some information on the field cues/habitats you found them in would be beneficial... I always prefer hearing first-hand accounts than what wikipedia has to say, if I can


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## Chris_Skeleton (Dec 3, 2011)

Peter_Parker said:


> Did you collect the native ones yourself?  Perhaps some information on the field cues/habitats you found them in would be beneficial... I always prefer hearing first-hand accounts than what wikipedia has to say, if I can


Yes I did collect them myself. I'll get some of that info up soon.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Dec 3, 2011)

*Current specimens and some general notes*

I currently keep two unsexed juveniles. I'm going to refer to them as juveniles because they are still fairly small, but not as small as the slings and they take a long time to grow. At once, I have had 5 specimens: two were traded off and one died. As for mature males, they are extremely easy to find. In the past year, I have been able to get my hands on about 5 or 6. I caught the mature males on my porch and the rest of them in my backyard. The largest I have ever found was ~3". It was pretty stocky, but I accidentally killed it while digging it up. 

These species can go an extremely long time without eating. I keep the sub moist and feed them maybe once a month. They grow slow as well and only two of the ones that were in my possession molted. 

They are skittish, and skittish with prey as well, and will run at the slightest disturbance. Once they are out, if you are careful not to spook them, you can handle them easily. Mature males are extremely defensive and will slap anything that comes near them and are fairly quick. They can be found on porches and around other areas of houses after a rain.

I will post some pictures of the spiders, their enclosures, and their natural habitat and burrows later. Along with habitat information and some collecting notes.


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## satchellwk (Dec 4, 2011)

I just found what I believe is a Myrmekiephila trapdoor spider just yesterday, and I was searching for some care info, so this will be very helpful. I believe that mine is a female, for the fact that it's fairly large (for a native spider) and was in a burrow when I found it, although some more definite sexing methods would be appreciated. I'm assuming that it is fairly content since it burrowed down as soon as i put it in an enclosure, which was just a jar of coco fiber 2/3 full. 
I would really appreciate if you could post some of your specific care, since you seem to have a lot of experience with this variety of spider.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Dec 4, 2011)

@satchellwk
Post some pictures of your spider. I don't know what the distinguishing characteristics are of each species are so I probably won't be able to ID it. However, I know that M. neilyoungi can be found in Alabama. I'm working on finding the info on sexing and IDing methods so when I get some I will post it. I am also working on a care sheet. The one thing I advise you to do is moisten the substrate and keep it moist so it's able to drink.


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## satchellwk (Dec 5, 2011)

For a second there, I thought you were kidding with the M. neilyoungi, but now, thanks to Google, I hope my spider is of the rock star variety.
Thanks for the moisture tip, that has seemed to be the key husbandry detail that I can gather from the internet, and plus it was in a very wet area when I found it. 
Here are the pics:


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## Chris_Skeleton (Dec 5, 2011)

That is a nice looking spider. How big is it? Also, it would be awesome if you could post some pics and details about the area you found it. Along with some collection notes and anything else such as when it molts, burrow construction, etc.

I can't ID, but according to the article below, M. neilyoungi, M. torreya, and M. fluviatilis are all found in Alabama. Where in Alabama are you located?

*Phylogeny and Classification of the Trapdoor Spider Genus Myrmekiaphila: An Integrative Approach to Evaluating Taxonomic Hypotheses:*
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012744


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## satchellwk (Dec 5, 2011)

Thanks! It's a little more than the diameter of a quarter from leg tip to leg tip (I unfortunately didn't measure her before she burrowed. I found her in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at a local park that's on the banks of the Black Warrior River. It was about 10 feet or so from shore under a rock, it had built its burrow underneath it. The soil was very wet, almost mud, and had a clay consistency. It burrowed within minutes of giving it ample substrate
According to the range map, it could either be neilyoungi or foliata.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Dec 6, 2011)

According to the map, my specimens could either be M. jenkinsoni or M. foliata. If we could determine that ours are different species and one is M. foliata, then we could ID the other. That is, if the ranges are accurate. Have you come across any mature males?


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## satchellwk (Dec 6, 2011)

Unfortunately, I have not seen any mature males. The finding of this one was completely by chance, I was just poking around, and not looking for any particular animals. I flipped this spider by chance, and had actually never seen a trapdoor of this sort before. 
However, based on some pics I have found online, despite being few and far between, foliata appears to have more of a red complexion on the entire body, while neilyoungi has a cephalothorax coloration with a reddish brown tint on the legs and a gray abdomen, which is very similar to my specimen. Therefore, my best guess would be neilyoungi for mine, but I did read in one place that a 100% id cannot be made on trapdoors without a microscopic examination of the pedipalps.
By the way, could you post some pics of your specimens, enclosures, etc.?


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## Chris_Skeleton (Dec 6, 2011)

I am in my last week of school, so once I get out for my Christmas break, I will be posting more info and pics . Until then, just type Myrmekiaphila in the search bar and I've got three or four threads with a few pics that will pop up.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Sep 26, 2012)

Just a few notes to add. These are very hardy. I am currently feeding them one mealworm a month and they are doing just fine. 

I have a feeding video of my larger one I will post soon.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Oct 19, 2012)

*Pictures of burrow in the wild*

Some pics of one of my old specimens:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?200173-Pics-of-my-Myrmekiaphila-trapdoors...finally!
















And a picture of the trapdoor I dug up that had died. Unsure of what was going on with this one.


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## tonypace2009 (Oct 20, 2012)

These trapdoor spiders actually will web up a ball of wet clay and drink from it. I usually 
Put a layer of clay at the bottom of container about an inch thick then 8 inches of substrate
They usualy dig a slightly curved burrow with a second chamber . There burrow resembles
A Letter Y . When they build their doors they spin a silk mat on the entrance of their burrow
Then fold the mat back in on top of their burrow . The coolest burrow builders to watch.
The second instars of these also build miniature version burrows.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Oct 23, 2012)

tonypace2009 said:


> These trapdoor spiders actually will web up a ball of wet clay and drink from it. I usually
> Put a layer of clay at the bottom of container about an inch thick then 8 inches of substrate
> They usualy dig a slightly curved burrow with a second chamber . There burrow resembles
> A Letter Y . When they build their doors they spin a silk mat on the entrance of their burrow
> ...



Can you post some pictures of your spiders and enclosures?  Also, what kind of clay do you use?

Mine have just made burrows straight down to the bottom and then across the bottom to the other edge of the enclosure. I've yet to have one make a Y burrow yet. I do enjoy seeing them pull their little doors shut lol. 


*Myrmekiaphila on Bugguide.net*
http://bugguide.net/node/view/170331


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## tonypace2009 (Oct 23, 2012)

On the bug guid.net you have at the bottom of your post, click on it, then click on images, I have 4 imigaes on there, click on the picture of the first instars picture and the rest will show. I had to get rid of my trapdoor spiders before moving to Texas, they were not allowed where we were moving.
I had them in a 10 gallon aquarium, all 7 of them. The clay I dug up, and dryed out in oven to sterielize , then rewet. Next I put 1 to 2 inches of clay at the bottom of aqurium then 8 inches of peat and potting soil mix, packing it down fairly tight,  to make them burrow where I wanted them to, I used a 1 1/4 coupling PVC.  Put it where you want it and take a stick about the size of spider and poke it into soil at a slight angle less than a 45 degree and poke it down about 1 1/2 inches and put spider in coupling and it will find the hole. Also the spider will find the hole faster if the  hole is fairly close to the edge of fitting. In the wild they are usually near riverbanks . The clay is a moisture barrier , maybe that is why yours are digging to the bottom and over looking for some sort of moisture. They will make a ball of clay that contains moisture for drinking. When I water them, I water them like a rain shower, the water will perculate down to the clay barrier and when they have too much water they will open their little doors to dry out their burrows. I have been looking at some of the trapdoors on the boards and really want to get a couple more. I wonder if any one would trade one.  I have Aphonopelma hentzi 2nd instars, actually about 300 of them. Hope this info helps. I will try to find some more pictures of mine,  but they are organized all over my computer in several different folders. In the meantime , I'll just look at everyone else's and wish I had a couple more.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Oct 23, 2012)

^Thanks for the info! So you had 7 in one enclosure? Did you ever witness them crossing paths with another? I've been thinking about trying this if I ever find more. Any cannobalism or fighting at all? Did any of the burrows intersect?


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## tonypace2009 (Oct 24, 2012)

I had one female that would come out and chase down crickets and sometimes cross one of the other burrows, but I think they can tell the size of the prey because they never came out to grab her. As long as they are all about the same size I wouldn't worry about it, for the most part if they came out they would stay right around their burrows except that one female and the one male. I guess I had a colony of them, in the wild you can find them really close to each other.  I seperated them a little ways from each other in the aquarium, one toward each corner and two toward the middle of the aquarium,  across from each other, and the male seemed to move and make temporaiy burrows all over the aquarium. Two of the females ended up with eggsacs and I was worried about the spiderlings being eaten when I saw the first ones at the entrance of the burrow. I dug them out and put them a seperate container when they were second instars, I was feeding them termites.
For the most part they will make the direction of their burrows  with the angle of the initial hole I made with the stick, a slight downward curve and the second chamber usually comes off the top side of the curve about 3 to 4 inches down. You dont always see the second opening, some times it just shows as a lump that wasn't there yesterday. When you have to dig them up for any reason then you will find the second chamber.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Chris_Skeleton (Oct 24, 2012)

I've witnessed the second chambers in the wild as I have dug them up. I would've had a nice size full grown female, but it retreated up into its second chamber and I was digging with my knife and struck it in the middle of the carapace. I was quite upset about that.


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## tonypace2009 (Oct 24, 2012)

Chris_Skeleton said:


> I've witnessed the second chambers in the wild as I have dug them up. I would've had a nice size full grown female, but it retreated up into its second chamber and I was digging with my knife and struck it in the middle of the carapace. I was quite upset about that.


I was installing irrigation system at the art gallary when I first found these little gems, so when I could, I would dig them out and relocate them,
except for the seven I kept. The trick to digging them out is... the inward curve of their burrow, their second chamber is on the top side of  the curve.
Dig a hole straight down about 8 inches, about a 1 1/2 inches away from entrance. Then take a sturdy stick less than 1/2 inch dia, stick it into burrow  about one inch at a time, breaking the burrow a piece at a time over into the hole you dug. You are also looking for the secondary trap door to the hidden chamber, but some times you will find them at the bottom of the main burrow, so feel for any resistance with the stick, don't want to crush them. Getting one out of the hidden chamber: once you find second door, it angles slightly upward to the top, just slightly scrape the top soil, until the top of the second chamber appears. Sometimes  the spider will run out to the  main burrow, if not, you could dump a little water into chamber or lightly insert stick into hole. On occasions I have just dug out second chamber as a complete section. I did have 2 of these complete second chambers, I wanted to make a mold of one but they got broken from being moved. I should of cut one in half and taken pictures.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Oct 25, 2012)

*New species: Myrmekiaphila tigris (Auburn Tiger Trapdoor Spider)*

*Phylogenetic reconsideration of Myrmekiaphila systematics with a description of the new trapdoor spider species Myrmekiaphila tigris (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Cyrtaucheniidae, Euctenizinae) from Auburn, Alabama*

Published: 5/04/2012
http://www.pensoft.net/journals/zookeys/article/3011/abstract/


*Article from Auburn University:*
http://www.auburn.edu/cosam/news/th...-discovered-from-a-college-town-backyard-.htm


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## spiderengineer (Oct 31, 2012)

this is awesome thread I love trapdoors and actually bought one of these guys form ken the bug guy and it arrive today and now I have a better idea of how I need to take care of it.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Oct 31, 2012)

spiderengineer said:


> this is awesome thread I love trapdoors and actually bought one of these guys form ken the bug guy and it arrive today and now I have a better idea of how I need to take care of it.


They are neat little spiders. 

It would be awesome if you could post some pictures of your new little friend and the enclosure. Then some of the burrow once it constructs it. And feel free to post any observations or tricks you discover with these. Enjoy!


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## spiderengineer (Oct 31, 2012)

I was actually going to get two of them, but they only had one left apparently. so here is a pic of it, and I will try to get a video of it burrowing if I am lucking, but I can't make any promises, since all spiders burrow it seems when you are not looking :biggrin:


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## spiderengineer (Nov 7, 2012)

so first thing I have notice about this species of trapdoor compared to my other traps. is that they seem to like or prefer to bury them self in the substrate and build from the bottom up if that makes any sense. I say this because after a few nights with her not doing anything about making a burrow. I had a bit of a experience with her one morning. I was checking up on her and literally an hour later on checking on her, because she is pretty to look at she had disappear and there was no sing that she had started making her burrow or was beginning to make one for that matter. so I freak because I thought she had escape, I should note this was like 6 in the morning and I was not thinking properly. so I search around my room looking for her didn't find her and decide to do some digging and she was in there, but there was no indication of a burrow as I was digging it was like she was just in the ground buried in there like an avalanche had swallow her. well a few days later the same thing happen and I was prepared for it and so I just let her be, but as I look around I didn't see a door or anything just loose soil were I last saw her last and no indication of a burrow, but you know what they say fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me.

so I let her be and had not seen her since then until this morning and I discovered this when I woke up




so my only explanation is they work from the bottom up instead of the top down.I say this because, with my other traps that work from the top down typical of most burrow species as well. I always can see them working digging, but this one is either the exception or how they all are for this species. this is just from my experience from my other burrow and trapdoors, but this guy just did it so different I found it really odd and will definitely not for get it.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Nov 7, 2012)

I have not witnessed the construction of the burrow with mine. 

Has yours constructed a "trapdoor"? IME, they wait quite a while before they construct a door. I have seen some that did not construct a door at all. It seems these just keep open burrows and retreat down into them rather than have a door to pull shut. However, some of the doors blend in with the substrate and you won't see them until you witness them pulling them shut. 

*Notes on Defense Mechanisms*
1. Threat postures/bites - I have yet to witness any threat postures/biting in any of these aside from mature males, which seem to be aggressive/defensive toward anything. Reminds me of P. cancerides. 
2. Balling up - I have witnessed these balling up when dug up or out of their burrow. All of the ones I dug up would tuck their legs as close to their body and just lay there and would not open up and run away until prodded with a few times. It appears they try to mimic clumps of dirt/rocks in the soil when they do this. It is a pretty neat little defense mechanism and actually makes them harder to find sometimes if you are digging them up.


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## spiderengineer (Nov 7, 2012)

Chris_Skeleton said:


> I have not witnessed the construction of the burrow with mine.
> 
> Has yours constructed a "trapdoor"? IME, they wait quite a while before they construct a door. I have seen some that did not construct a door at all. It seems these just keep open burrows and retreat down into them rather than have a door to pull shut. However, some of the doors blend in with the substrate and you won't see them until you witness them pulling them shut.
> 
> ...


yes I saw it shut its door I was going to video tape it working on its burrow and it shut is door on me, but there was no sign of a burrow before this morning. I mean I look for a burrow after it disappear there was noting it definitely was buried underground. I mean I have had trapdoor wait a day or two before making there door and they just sit at the bottom of the hole, but this one did not do that.

As far as defense no threat posture, my African reds are on one spectrum being the most aggressive I mean I open their lid and legs went up before they made they home. this one is on the other end and chose to run away instead.

the balling up thing is common with most of my traps I see. when I rehouse my African reds they did that as well and so did this one when I thought it had escape. in fact almost would have missed it had I not shifted the dirt around after I had empty most of it out. I thought it might be dead and as soon as I prodded it took off good thing they are not good climbers.


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## spiderengineer (Nov 16, 2012)

so another thing I notice about this species or at least mine is that they seem to have a period were they have their door open. every time when I wake up in the morning the door is open. then when I get back from school the door is shut. some times I see it coming up when I shine a light on it and sometimes it doesn't not come up at all. now I am not sure if it is still making its burrow. If that is the case it is definitely one of the slowest worker I have seen and also I don't see any signs of more construction if you know what I mean.


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## tonypace2009 (Nov 16, 2012)

spiderengineer said:


> so another thing I notice about this species or at least mine is that they seem to have a period were they have their door open. every time when I wake up in the morning the door is open. then when I get back from school the door is shut. some times I see it coming up when I shine a light on it and sometimes it doesn't not come up at all. now I am not sure if it is still making its burrow. If that is the case it is definitely one of the slowest worker I have seen and also I don't see any signs of more construction if you know what I mean.




Opening their door I believe is to regulate humidity.I found that when 
I misted them lightly they would open their doors shortly after.
After starting there burrows some would take up to two weeks
Before they built there door. One took up to a month to build its door
But I think it molted before building door.
They seem to build what looks like a molting sock. I accidently
Dug one up that was molting she pulled through just fine. Now I
Feed them before rehousing them if they eat wait a day and rehouse them.


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## spiderengineer (Nov 16, 2012)

[video=youtube;NaOTVxE8GfA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaOTVxE8GfA&feature=youtu.be[/video]

so I finally got her catching a cricket!!!!!!!!!!!

---------- Post added 11-16-2012 at 08:36 PM ----------




tonypace2009 said:


> Opening their door I believe is to regulate humidity.I found that when
> I misted them lightly they would open their doors shortly after.
> After starting there burrows some would take up to two weeks
> Before they built there door. One took up to a month to build its door
> ...


she is the only trap that I have that does this, but it would explain it happening at the same time everyday I suppose


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## Chris_Skeleton (May 22, 2013)

*Feeding videos... FINALLY!!!*

So here are my videos that I have been meaning to upload. And yes, that is a pixie stick. I couldn't find anything else while I was filming. 

Edit: I hope the videos work. I can't pull them up on my iPhone or Kindle.


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## spiderengineer (May 22, 2013)

ok so mine is not the only one that doesn't act like a traditional trapdoor. what I mean is that they don't surprise attack their prey they open the door and what for meal to come by


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