Ancylometes sp. ROURA mating

[Emanuele]

Hi guys,
I'm here since 2002, but I neve participate too much.
I would like to repair this.
Here there are some pictures (more during the day) about the mating of Ancylometes sp. ROURA.
This first one is about the male, approaching the female.
Cheers
Ema

 

[Emanuele]

Here we are!
Some more pictures...
Ema

 

[KUJordan]

beautiful pics! that's really cool to see how much silk the male uses to wrap up the female during mating.

 

[RodG]

Fantastic photos And an amazing set up for these spiders:clap:
Please keep the photos coming

 

[rex_arachne]

excellent photos indeed. more please! :clap:

 

[rm90]

That setup looks really nice. Hell, i'd even like to live there. o.o

 

[Emanuele]

Hi All! Thanks for all the compliments about the pictures and the setup! But it's always possible to do better... ;-)
It's a set up made appositely to take the pictures yousaw, but I was lucky enough to have the mating exactly where i dreamed to see it. It's a big terrarium of about 70x50x70h cm which I normally use for frogs, but that is now the home of the female. I'll probably transfer her to a smaller container before her deposition, cause it's easier to manage the spiderlings when they'll hatch.
Cheers!
Ema

 

[Maybrick]

Hi Emanuele,
really nice pics and the setup looks wonderful :clap:
I heard from keepers of this species, that the mating never ended in results. The mating worked, but the eggsac never hatched. You could be very proud, if it ends up with slings. Or is here someone on the board, that had offspring of these?

 

[Emanuele]

This spiders arrived to me from a french friend who gave me them a few weeks ago. They were spiderlings when he got them, so I think they're captive bred. I'l try to ask him where...
The female unfortunetaly laid his first cocoon before I mated her with the male, but I hope she's going to make some more (as often with true spiders).
Anyway, another subadult which molted last night is another female, so I think the male will go into another mating...
I saw that the female which laid the unfertilized cocoon kept it INSIDE the water some time each day... it's quite interesting...
Here attached you see the cocoon and the eggs before putting it into alchool.
Cheers
Ema

 

[Crotalus]

Incredible pictures and setup! Well done!

 

[Emanuele]

Thank you all for the compliments!
Now I hope the female will make his fertile cocoon!
I'm near to mate another female, so more pictures will come...
Talking privately with Stefan I said that this species could be A. rufus, but today I was cataloguing some of my oldest slides and I saw an old picture of anAncylometes rufus which belonged to a friend. Now I'm not so sure they are the same species...
You can see the picture of Ancylometes rufus here: http://www.osf.co.uk/search.html
Cheers
Ema

 

[Emanuele]

Et voilà!
Some days ago I noticed the female was trying to climb on the glasses and was quite nervous.
So I added in the terrarium a bark, putting it in a "cave" manner, so the spider can have a retreat and an upper side from water.
This morning at 2:00 A.M. I saw this:

 

[Emanuele]

And this morning at 08:30 I finally found the female making the cocoon.
I think the little secret is giving them a surface to deposit eggs staying upside down like bats.
Cheers
Ema

 

[Stefan2209]

And this morning at 08:30 I finally found the female making the cocoon.
I think the little secret is giving them a surface to deposit eggs staying upside down like bats.
Cheers
Ema

Hi Ema,

congrats on that one!

Don´t think that cave-like structures are the "magic key", though: my Roura´s had structures like that and sucked nevertheless.

My A. bogotensis and the A. spec. Oyapok, too, built their sacs at vertical structures without any problems, even if they had the opportunity to build it upside down. Strange.

Either way: FINGERS CROSSED!

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Emanuele]

Yes, I had the same experience with bogotensis. But this time she WANTED an orizontal surface, even if vertical ones were disposable...
it's curious...
Thank you, my fingers are crossed ;-)
Cheers
Ema

 

[Stefan2209]

Yes, I had the same experience with bogotensis. But this time she WANTED an orizontal surface, even if vertical ones were disposable...
it's curious...
Thank you, my fingers are crossed ;-)
Cheers
Ema

Hi Ema,

yeah, A. bogo´s don´t seem to care to much at all, where they build their sacs...

If i remember this correct, Thomas mentioned something like he found that Roura spec. in close vicinity to caves....
Maybe that´s an explanation... ??

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Emanuele]

Yes, it could be possible indeed...
Of course I'm not saying this is the rule, since I only mated a couple! Maybe the female is a complete sado-maso!
The other female is now ready to mate and the drag lines are all around, so I'll try to mate her too.
Cheers
Ema

 

[Emanuele]

I also noticed that the female keep the cocoon down in the water. I noticed it in bogotensis too, but not for long time like this one. It's really interesting...

 

[Stefan2209]

I also noticed that the female keep the cocoon down in the water. I noticed it in bogotensis too, but not for long time like this one. It's really interesting...

Hi again,

they use to controll the micro-climate inside the sac that way. Note that they use to dip the sac only such deep into the water that just the brown-coloured outside of the sac gets wet and not the white tip?
Guess the brown stuff is to some degree water-resistant, wonder what it´s made of?

The different durations of the sac-dipping could possibly result from the different locations the species are found at: the Roura´s come from rather hot and moist locations, the A. bogo´s are found at more temperate climates, too.

As A. bogotensis is a quite far spread species, i wonder if specimen from different locations would use to have different durations in dipping their sacs?

Quite interesting.

My sac of Ancylometes spec. Oyapok is now some 10 days old, still get to see this behaviour with this species, though...

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Emanuele]

Ah, that's interesting about Oyapok...
Thanks for sharing your experience Stefan.
I forgotten to say that also A. rufus made the same behaviour, even if I never bred it (it's my friend Francesco Tomasinelli who did it).
Cheers
Ema