Funnel Web Weaver Spider - Agelenopsis sp.

[jsloan]

Can someone explain this?

That's the way they mate! The female becomes quiet and lays on her side, allowing the male to crawl on top of her and insert one of his palps. After a while she will turn onto her other side and he will insert his other palp. They can do this for hours, facing in opposite directions.

Here's a picture I took of a mating pair (Agelenopsis utahana) I had last July (I still have the female). The female is on the bottom, and you can kind of see that her abdomen is turned on its side.

 

[Roland Slinger]

That's so interesting!!

I could have sworn he was just eating her. I mean they didn't touch or do any kind of mating ritual I could tell (aside from the male thumping his abdomen on the silk, which is probably it). Then when she came close, he just jumped on her and his mouth was on her abdomen and she stopped moving the second he hit her.

Are you sure they don't immobilize the female at least temporarily?

 

[jsloan]

I have a Agelenopsis utahana, Had him since he was about.. 5 cm big. I thought he was a female until his last molt. He's molted about 3 or 4 times since I've had him, and hes at least one to one in a half inches big right now.
Theres one on my back porch thats atleast 3 inches big. Very pretty boy.
I've had mine for about 4 months now.

That is very large for this species. I measured an adult male A. utahana last July and the leg span was less than 1.5 inches (the female was a bit smaller). Here is the actual spider:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/299590

Do you think you might be looking at a different species?

 

[jsloan]

Are you sure they don't immobilize the female at least temporarily?

If he did, I think it was because she "swooned" in his presence, not because he envenomated her in any way. Females of many other species of spiders also become docile and quiet during mating, allowing the male to have his way so to speak. For example, here are some pictures and a little explanation of a mating I saw between two crab spiders, Xysticus emertoni (Thomisidae) earlier this year. The male literally laid on his back, then picked the female up and manipulated her until she was in position for mating (this was after ritualistically "tying her up" with a few loose strands of silk - visible in the pictures). She remained still the entire time:

http://forum.canadianarachnology.org/viewtopic.php?p=2324#2324

Spider behavior is always fascinating. Expect the unexpected!

 

[ZergFront]

I have two male Agelenopsis; a mature and an immature. All the males are large than the females at this point in the year. I keep trying to find a female for the MM but all of the wild ones I find are males or babies.

I keep my MM in a salsa tub with holes around it and on the lid. He always has things in the container to web up and garden snail shells or hollow nutshells to hide in. When he makes the sheets of webbing I drop a fly on it in the evenings and mist a little.

 

[Roland Slinger]

the female keeps running away from him for some reason. He's been chasing her all night and she won't let him come near

 

[Roland Slinger]

Seems like the immobilization thing is a pheromone. It happens everytime the male touches the female, even after they just got done mating and I shove the female into the male.

The other day I threw in a cricket into their cage and they both tried hunting it. At one point the female mistook the male for the cricket and kind of jumped at him. The male got a hold of her and the instant he touched her she folded her legs and did not move. I kind of panicked thinking the male bit her so I separated them and she was fine and kept on hunting.

But my point is, even while mistaking prey, the female gives in immmediatly to the male. So it must be some kind of scent thing.

Also... why on earth are there so little males? For the past few days I've been actively hunting for males outside. I've seen at least 50 females but no males (aside from the first one I accidentally captured, thinking it was female in the first place)

 

[jsloan]

But my point is, even while mistaking prey, the female gives in immmediatly to the male. So it must be some kind of scent thing.

That depends. I left the male in with my female for a cuple of weeks after they mated, and she eventually ended up eating him. Before that I could see he'd lost a couple of legs, so the female does not always tolerate the male's presence.

Also... why on earth are there so little males? For the past few days I've been actively hunting for males outside. I've seen at least 50 females but no males (aside from the first one I accidentally captured, thinking it was female in the first place)

Mature males don't, as a general rule, make webs or stay in one place. I caught quite a few males in pitfall traps this year. Also, there is a season for mature males. They appear for a while and then die out, but the females are always around. I have found a couple dozen females throughout this season (and I wasn't even looking), all in webs except for two that turned up in pitfall traps. Anyway, if the males are still around in your area try some pitfall traps. You're more likely to get one that way.

 

[Roland Slinger]

That depends. I left the male in with my female for a cuple of weeks after they mated, and she eventually ended up eating him. Before that I could see he'd lost a couple of legs, so the female does not always tolerate the male's presence.



Mature males don't, as a general rule, make webs or stay in one place. I caught quite a few males in pitfall traps this year. Also, there is a season for mature males. They appear for a while and then die out, but the females are always around. I have found a couple dozen females throughout this season (and I wasn't even looking), all in webs except for two that turned up in pitfall traps. Anyway, if the males are still around in your area try some pitfall traps. You're more likely to get one that way.

Ah, if they don't make webs that would explain it, because I only look for webs (and the one I found was on a web, must have been a females web).

What is a pitfall trap? (Google to the rescue! I'll have to try that. Problem is, all the spiders are in a 1-2 foot bushes outside my house, not on ground level, I don't think males will go to the ground?)

 

[Roland Slinger]

Well, it's been 10 days since I bred two females and still no sac from either one. Could it be that they're not mature? According to the link in this thread about breeding, it took that user 4 days to produce the first eggsac.

How can I tell if the females are mature or not? They're medium size from the ones I've seen outside

 

[NixHexDude]

I thought I'd re-open this thread for discussion. This will sound stupid, but I was watching spiderman...Anyway the one part said that the "grass spider" has reflexes which border precognition. I googled grass spider and found that it's another common name for the funnel-web spider. I used the search engine to find this thread once I realized I catch/release one of these every month or so in my house.

Anyway it got me curious about keeping one or two. I was wondering if anyone had pictures of their enclosures. I'm thinking about using the salsa jar setup I've used for sling aboreals. I also have some spare KK's around. Thanks guys.