# L. geometricus Egg Sac in the Making (Pictures/Video)



## davisfam (Sep 12, 2010)

Thank goodness we decided to be night owls tonight because we we're able to catch our L. geometricus go through the complete process of forming her egg sac. It was such a neat thing to watch so we took as many pictures as possible without disturbing her. We we're also able to catch a short video of her actually "pumping" her eggs into the sac; the quality is not that great but it's still a decent video overall.. enjoy widow lovers!! 

*Pictures: *










































*FINISHED EGG SAC!! *






*Video:*
* We will be posting the video later on because it is taking awhile to upload onto the website, thanks for your patience! We promise you won't be upset, it's such a neat process to watch!

* Also, we have even more pictures and another small video if anyone is interested, just please let us know! Thanks! =)


----------



## insect714 (Sep 12, 2010)

Excellent shots! :worship:


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 12, 2010)

interesting! great shots. 

weird though, that the eggs are that pink color.


----------



## recluse (Sep 12, 2010)

Trade you hesperus for geometricus


----------



## davisfam (Sep 12, 2010)

Widowman10 said:


> interesting! great shots.
> 
> weird though, that the eggs are that pink color.


Thanks! 
It was such a neat experience to watch.. and I think the reason the eggs look drastically pink in color is due to using a flashlight and then bringing her inside our bathroom which has a colored bulb although the eggs were a redish-pink tint to both my fiance and I's naked eye so I don't know? :?


----------



## H. laoticus (Sep 12, 2010)

I'm getting chills looking at those pics.  Those spiders creep me out...not to mention the egg sacks.


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 12, 2010)

yeah, cause a buddy and i only experienced problems with eggs (from certain species) when they were pink.


----------



## davisfam (Sep 13, 2010)

Widowman10 said:


> yeah, cause a buddy and i only experienced problems with eggs (from certain species) when they were pink.


Ahh, what kind of problems?? That comment makes me nervous..


----------



## zonbonzovi (Sep 13, 2010)

Neat series!  I had no idea that they expelled the eggs in such an organized fashion.


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 13, 2010)

davisfam said:


> Ahh, what kind of problems?? That comment makes me nervous..


not saying it will happen with yours 

but with our 13-guttatus, pink-ish eggs always were bad.


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 13, 2010)

from another site:



> I've never seen widow eggs this color (pink) except for a failed attempt at a sac from my female menavodi that mated with a mactans.
> 
> This mactans was collected in Silver Springs a couple weeks ago. She was surrounded by about twenty geometricus of both sexes and all sizes. Pretty sad considering geometricus populations were next to nothing in the area several years ago.
> 
> ...


so who knows? you might get a great sac! please keep us updated on this. document slings and everything if you can.


----------



## TheTyro (Sep 13, 2010)

The eggs look awesome... the resulting eggsac is even cooler!

And the only spider with non-yellow eggs that I've ever seen was the unidentified Dictnya that I took to Rod. The eggs looked bright red, like the spider! The eggsac was PUNY (looked like a sunny side up egg, with a red yolk XD) though, and the eggs never hatched. I think a drop of water got on the sac and messed it up.


----------



## davisfam (Sep 14, 2010)

*L. geometricus Egg Sac in the Making (The VIDEO!!)*

Finally, here is the video of our female L. geometricus 'pumping' her eggs onto the egg sac. The quality is not that great, sorry. (Read Video Description)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaZp7vd3CUg


Enjoy!


----------



## davisfam (Sep 16, 2010)

We woke up to find that our L. geometricus had not only one egg sac, as usual, but now she has TWO egg sacs. I changed her "home" to something a bit larger and more comfortable yesterday afternoon along with giving her a snack, of course. We are not sure if this is the reason for the new egg sac or what?? Does anyone have any ideas on this.. ? Most widows we have come across have always had more than one egg sac around; heck, I've seen some Mama Widows with 5 egg sacs. Is this normal? Can someone please fill us in?

Here is a picture of her with her new and old egg sac:


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 16, 2010)

i had a buddy that had a geo produce 33 eggsacs. feed well and she'll continue.


----------



## insect714 (Sep 16, 2010)

I will also say that most of not all of the L. geo that I have kept have produced a min of 3 sacs each, and some of the wilds that I have come across in the area have 5-6 in the web.


----------



## davisfam (Sep 20, 2010)

Wowzaa, thanks for the information fellas.. we appreciate it tons! 

Update and Questions: Okaay, so our female L. geo has 3 egg sacs now. She created the third sac last night. I noticed this egg sac wasn't as pink in color as the first two egg sacs. I snapped a picture of the 3rd sac, I'll post if after I return from class tonight. The first sac should be "hatching" (if fertile) either tonight or tomorrow, can I seperate her from the egg sacs? Or will this cause too much trauma to the L. geo? I just don't want slings running around all over in the cage, unless it's impossible to remove the egg sac into a seperate "home".. ?? We try to keep life as natural as possible for our spidies so I don't want to upset our Mama widow. Please, any information regarding L. geo slings and this whole "birth process" would be very helpful, thanks!


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 20, 2010)

take the sac out, you'll be very sorry if you don't...


----------



## davisfam (Sep 20, 2010)

Ahh, thanks! We took all 3 egg sacs out of the L. geo's home and put them into their own comfortable habitat-type home. Is that okay??


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 20, 2010)

yeah that will be fine. as long as there's no small holes for the slings to escape through...


----------



## davisfam (Sep 20, 2010)

Naah, no small holes for their escape.. lol. Do we need to do anything? Or just wait and see what comes about.. ?


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 20, 2010)

wait and see


----------



## davisfam (Sep 23, 2010)

Here is our L. geo with her 2 of her 3 egg sacs before we removed them.. we have been documenting any changes but thus far, no slings.  Hopefully, we will see something soon. We'll post our recordings as soon as possible!


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 23, 2010)

it will take more than a few weeks for them to hatch...


----------



## davisfam (Sep 25, 2010)

Soo, we had a bit of a mishap occur the other night. :8o Our dog got a little too excited and knocked over the table that had the L. geo's egg sacs on it; two of the three egg sacs were damaged.  Well, we didn't want to mess with either damaged egg sac just incase some of the eggs were unharmed during the accident. Today, we noticed the L. geo's FIRST egg sac which was damaged had some sort of white-colored silk/fuzz growing over it. Immediatly, we thought it was mold due to the rotten eggs although the other damaged egg sac doesn't have this "white fuzz" on it. The reason we think it's mold is because it is growing in thickness with time but we're not 100% sure. I can't find anything about this on the internet. Can anyone confirm what this stuff is, please?? :?


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 25, 2010)

pics might be helpful  also, what is your setup like?


----------



## Elleken (Sep 25, 2010)

Oh man this just made me realize I missed out on collecting an L. geometricus and its egg sac while in SC. Didn't realize they made it up that far and thought it was something else.


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 25, 2010)

really? in SC?! 

was it maybe a hitch-hiker or local population? i haven't heard of them making it up that far...


----------



## Elleken (Sep 25, 2010)

Widowman10 said:


> really? in SC?!
> 
> was it maybe a hitch-hiker or local population? i haven't heard of them making it up that far...


From what I saw it looked like there could be more. It was in a garage and honestly didn't think anything of it until just now. The egg sac was the perfect shape.


----------



## davisfam (Sep 26, 2010)

Alright, here is a picture of all three egg sacs as of last night. By the way, our L. geo decided she wanted to pop out yet another egg sac making four total.

*Here is a picture of her FIRST egg sac which was damaged;*
(This is the one with the 'white fuzz' around it; not sure what's going on?)
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i11/kelseyjane10/0272.jpg

*Her SECOND egg sac which was also damaged;*
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i11/kelseyjane10/0332.jpg

*THIRD egg sac which was NOT damaged;*
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i11/kelseyjane10/0342.jpg

*Three of the Four Egg Sacs;*
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i11/kelseyjane10/0352.jpg


* We'll post pictures of the fourth egg sac tomorrow after we remove it from her 'home'. More updates to come! =)

As far as the eggs set-up, we just have them in a medium sized container without holes with a small amount of substrate for moisture with a single stick in the upright position. We mist their set-up once a week; it was not too wet in the container though nor did the egg sacs get wet by droplets, etc.. that we are sure of but this 'white fuzz' still doesn't make sense? Hmm..?

Does anyone have any ideas? If you need more picures, just let me know and I'll send them as soon as possible. Thanks! :?


----------



## davisfam (Sep 26, 2010)

Update; We checked a few hours ago and now all 3 egg sacs are forming this 'white fuzz'. The fourth egg sac is still with the L. geometricus in her 'home', we don't want to mess with it at of right now. I'll post pictures later on tonight of all the egg sacs including the L. geo but nothing has changed except the "white fuzz" and relocation of the egg sacs. Does anyone have any idea what this stuff might be?? :?


----------



## Widowman10 (Sep 26, 2010)

yeah, that looks pretty funny... with this next one, try keeping it with mom until it turns very dark. that way, whatever is growing on your eggsac will not affect the good (4th) one. i will usually leave sacs with momma until a few days before emergence.


----------



## davisfam (Sep 27, 2010)

Widowman10 said:


> yeah, that looks pretty funny... with this next one, try keeping it with mom until it turns very dark. that way, whatever is growing on your eggsac will not affect the good (4th) one. i will usually leave sacs with momma until a few days before emergence.


:worship: Thanks for the input, we we're stressing about this ALL day because the internet has proved useless in this situation, lol. We figured the 'white fuzz' was due to removing the egg sac too soon from the Mama L. geo but I guess this is a learning experience, right?  We will leave the 4th egg sac with Mama until 2-3 days before the slings pop on out into the world. I'll keep recordings on the 4th egg sac until the process is complete.

*Here are some recent pictures of the egg sacs (ALL of them and Mama);*







*More Pictures;*

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i11/kelseyjane10/Spiders%20and%20Such/0064.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i11/kelseyjane10/Spiders%20and%20Such/0054.jpg


----------

