Genus Dolomedes

ErikWestblom

Arachnobaron
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Apr 19, 2008
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That one has quite big pedipalps too, don't you think?
Anyways, here are 2 pics of the enclosure, clean and simple.


 

Johnnyster

Arachnosquire
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Anybody out there with a MM D. tenebrosus?..........

(yeah yeah, you can move it to the "pimpim" section ,,,,but later...LOL)

:}
 

Black Widow88

Arachnobaron
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Jun 8, 2007
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Fince: Awesome! Never knew that the females in this genius had long palps. But I guess now to distinguish the males from the females you have to look for a smaller abdomen and over all a skinner spider.

Awesome indeed! Also Fince what language is "Az ipafai papnak fapipája van, ezért az ipafai papi pipa papi fapipa." in? It looks like a tongue twister. I like it though it's cute!

Black Widow88
 

ErikWestblom

Arachnobaron
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My d. fimbriatus got scared today when I was about to tweezer-feed it, and ran down under the piece of bark I have in the water. Sorry for the low quality pics.





And here's a crappy quality video of a successful tweezer-feed (the fly was too hurt to move enough for it to grab it from the water surface :()



Enjoy :)
 

Black Widow88

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I took a picture of a female Dolomedes sp. at camp in 2006 but it was blurry also and you can hardly see it. So I know what you're talking about.

At least I got to see it for a few good days before she "disappeared" from her temp home which was a log with a hole filled with rain water. It apparently went pretty deep because when she had her egg sac she would go under and attach it to the side.

That's when ever she noticed I was there. Although eventually she "realized" I meant no harm and was less shy around me and me only. :D Even fed her once or twice which was cool.

Never forget her. She was my little friend while I was there. ♥

Black Widow88
 

proper_tea

Arachnobaron
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Hey can other people post pics of their enclosures? I just found a D. tenebrosus while I was wandering through the woods yesterday. I'll post some pics of her (I believe it's a she) when I'm at a computer that has a USB hook up. I'd like to do a semi-aquatic one... preferably one that is heavily planted enough that eventually I wouldn't need to use a filter. Has anyone else tried this?
 

proper_tea

Arachnobaron
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Syndicate... That is a beautiful picture...

I've been finding a lot of these (D. tenebrosus) lately. In the last 2 days I believe I've found 4

Question: How big are the males? Can anyone post pictures of mature males for me? I've been finding these spiders that I believe are either male D. tenebrosus, or young D. tenebrosus. They look just like the adults, except that they are only about 1" in legspan. Here's the thing though. On one that I found this morning it's palps were all boxing gloved out like it was mature. Are the males really only 1/4 the size of the females? That would be crazy!!! I don't want to go tossing it in with one of my big ones though unless I know that they are the same species.

How many people here have success with breeding, and do you have pics?

-curtis
 

syndicate

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thanks man.i found a couple mature males today.they were in the same spot i released spiderlings to last year.if you look on page 6 theres a shot of a mature male.
 

proper_tea

Arachnobaron
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Yeah, I went back and saw that right after I posted...

So here's what I'm unclear on... Are they like widows, where you will see enlarged palps before the males are fully matured? 'cause I've got a couple spiders that look exactly like tiny (1" legspan, if that) dolomedes, but one looks like it's a MM. I don't want to throw it in with a female if he still has a couple molts left before he's ready for her. In the pics I'm seeing of MMs they look more developed, and I'm pretty sure I found a bigger MM yesterday, but was unable to actually catch it and verify.

So, I'm trying to determine if I have another species here... a mini dolomedes, or just some juvies that look like MMs.

Thanks for the help

-curtis
 

syndicate

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i dont believe the palps are to enlarged prior to maturing.the mature males i have seen are usally round an inch or so legspan.also theres two species of dolomedes:tenebrosus/scriptus that look almost identicle.
 

proper_tea

Arachnobaron
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I guess there's no harm in putting them together and seeing what happens... if I lose a male I guess I lose a male.

From what I've read tenebrosus is the common Dolomedes species in PA. Do you know how to identify down to species with them? I may try to mate them tonight or tomorrow. I'll post pics and let y'all know how it goes.

-curtis
 

proper_tea

Arachnobaron
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These magic moments

Ok... I introduced what I believe(d) to a MM D. Tenebrosus to a lady friend last night... here's the play by play so far...

btw... both were WC, and if I remember correctly, they both even came from the same dead tree, but I could be wrong about that...

the introduction:

(male in vile on left, female on right, partially covered by bark)

climbing on out...


where is my love? (lucinda williams anyone?)


At this point I went to bed... here's what I found in the morning...

The female is halfway in the vial, and the male is at the bottom. It's hard to see, and at first I thought he was dead (indicating possible success?). But no... it seems that he has molted. So, I'm not quite sure what this means (another sperm web?)... but I'm just gonna let it play out...

here's another pic....
 

proper_tea

Arachnobaron
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Here are a couple pics of the female before the introduction...









Is she not gorgeous?
 

proper_tea

Arachnobaron
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So... um... they both died...

Not quite sure what happened... possibly it was something with the bark that was in there... but the bark in there was actually from a dead oak tree where I had collected some woodlouse hunters... very alive... in fact I just found another spider (that I have yet to identify) in some from the same tree that I brought home to keep bess beetles in.

The crazy thing was, I fed the female a cricket just before I left the house. She killed it immediately and started munching on it. I came back later and the female and the male were dead, and the cricket was only half eaten.

Anyway... I have 3 more females, but no more males. I will need to go collecting soon.
 

orcrist

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Sep 24, 2004
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I was down at the creek the other day experimenting with a new macro photography setup, and I encountered several specimens of both D. tenebrosus and D. scriptus.

D. tenebrosus subadult females (they have boxed palps but most subadult females seem to for some reason)




D. scriptus subadult females, same deal




On the topic of Dolomedes males, in tenebrosus the males are significantly smaller with different markings, they look almost like some other species. In scriptus the males are more similar to the females, just a little smaller and differently proportioned. I'll try to shoot a few next time.
 

proper_tea

Arachnobaron
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very nice pics... nice to see a tenebrosus by the water, rather than in a tree...

I lived in Fredonia a couple years ago... I was a cook at BJ's.

-c
 
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