Huge True Spider

[cogmonkey17]

Accidentally collected in southeastern MO, she hitched a ride back to Stl along with her eggsack, i have no clue what type of spider she is, all the wolf spiders i have ever seen don't look remotely close to this one, but it's still a possibility. At 4.45 in this girl is larger than all but one of my tarantulas.

 

[cogmonkey17]

Dolomedes sp. after looking at the previous thread looks to have solved it

 

[PrettyHate]

She's beautiful

 

[proper_tea]

I keep a couple of these and I would encourage others to as well. It looks like D. tenebrosus from here... but if you really wanna know you should look at the descriptions online...

 

[cogmonkey17]

more pics

*the coffee cup was her mode of transportation and temporary housing

*setting up some substrate for her, she decided to crawl all over my hand, i was trying to stress her out as little as possible, it did make for a good photo op though.

*in her new digs, ran out of peat moss, coco fiber and everything else so terrarium moss had to do. If the eggs hatch, im sure the babes will enjoy it. She is in a med critter keeper next to a heating pad on a ten gal. tank.

 

[citizen_smithi]

That's a lovely spider, but look at the positioning of the eye field, reminds me of megatron! Mean lookin!

What a find!

 

[proper_tea]

You're really lucky to have this spider with a sac... it's a kind of nursery web spider, which means it will build a sac around it's egg sac that it's babies will be born into.

Keep her on the humid side, because they will die pretty quick of dehydration. Her common name, if she is D. tenebrosus, is "fishing spider," if that gives you any idea of her water requirements.

Here's a link to the Dolomedes thread. Syndicate just bred these and had the sac hatch. I'm pretty sure there are pics.

 

[Shogun]

I want one!

 

[cogmonkey17]

thanks

tips always appreciated, i covered the top of the container in wax paper and made some tiny vent-openings with a tooth pick. I sprayed on side of the container down, the moss will have to do for this week which stinks, the stuff i have always molds after a few days in high humidity, i will keep close track of that. I will take some (more thought out) pics for the "official" Dolomedes thread, but ill find out what sp. it is first, I'm really sure it's tenebrosus, but I'll look into further.