Having acquired a lovely pair of H.venatoria from TSS the other week, I decided to attempt to breed them. In the week running up to breeding, the female was well fed on crickets and locusts. The mae ate once but, other than one small cricket, had lost all interest in food.
After introducing the male into the female's enclosure there was a 30 second stand-off while both parties took stock of the situation. The male started vibrating his abdomen. This continued for no more than 30 seconds prior to his drumming very loudly with his pedipalps.
Rapid vibration of legs 1 and 2 on one side of his body, then the other side of his body followed. This was repeated several times with the occasional body shake. Then a more insistent drumming with the pedipalps.
The female visibly tensed then relaxed in a way I’ve not seen before – difficult to describe. Without wanting to anthropomorphise, she seemed to become hypnotised, almost an alpha wave state.
The next phase was something I’d not expected in the least (my experience has been with tarantulas and face-to-face mating, not araenomorphs) – the male darted down below the female (which was in typical head-down position) and then ran up over her so his head was pointing up above her abdomen.
He then caressed her with leg pairs 1 and 3 before grasping her with these same legs. His head moved to the left of her abdomen and he reached around her pedicel with both palps probing for the genital operculum. When he was close he used leg one on the opposite side of her to squeeze tight, both pushing his embolus into her while lifting her up to facilitate entry. The entire manoeuvre was repeated on the other side.
This process was repeated over and over, spending about 10 seconds on each side.
After around 20 minutes the female started reaching down to her operculum with her palps and then up to her mouthparts, presumably checking for successful insemination(?). When she did this the male tapped between the femur of her leg 4 and her abdomen which stopped her “tasting”. (Does this stimulate some sort of endorphin response in the female?)
Unfortunately I had to leave the proceedings after about an hour and a half and when I returned she was enjoying a large, protein-rich meal which should help the development of her egg-sack.
Few pics:
After introducing the male into the female's enclosure there was a 30 second stand-off while both parties took stock of the situation. The male started vibrating his abdomen. This continued for no more than 30 seconds prior to his drumming very loudly with his pedipalps.
Rapid vibration of legs 1 and 2 on one side of his body, then the other side of his body followed. This was repeated several times with the occasional body shake. Then a more insistent drumming with the pedipalps.
The female visibly tensed then relaxed in a way I’ve not seen before – difficult to describe. Without wanting to anthropomorphise, she seemed to become hypnotised, almost an alpha wave state.
The next phase was something I’d not expected in the least (my experience has been with tarantulas and face-to-face mating, not araenomorphs) – the male darted down below the female (which was in typical head-down position) and then ran up over her so his head was pointing up above her abdomen.
He then caressed her with leg pairs 1 and 3 before grasping her with these same legs. His head moved to the left of her abdomen and he reached around her pedicel with both palps probing for the genital operculum. When he was close he used leg one on the opposite side of her to squeeze tight, both pushing his embolus into her while lifting her up to facilitate entry. The entire manoeuvre was repeated on the other side.
This process was repeated over and over, spending about 10 seconds on each side.
After around 20 minutes the female started reaching down to her operculum with her palps and then up to her mouthparts, presumably checking for successful insemination(?). When she did this the male tapped between the femur of her leg 4 and her abdomen which stopped her “tasting”. (Does this stimulate some sort of endorphin response in the female?)
Unfortunately I had to leave the proceedings after about an hour and a half and when I returned she was enjoying a large, protein-rich meal which should help the development of her egg-sack.
Few pics:
