Immature Araneomorphs Producing Egg Sacs

ReignofInvertebrates

Arachnoprince
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I have a Hogna schmitzi female that is only about 1-1.5” in leg span that just made a dud sac. Either they mature MUCH smaller than I thought they do or she’s done something I didn’t know Araneomorphs could do. I’ve been keeping spiders for like 10 years now, but never have I seen a female this far from maturity lay a dud. Is this something they do often that I’ve somehow just never witnessed?
 

magouilles

Arachnoknight
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I have a Hogna schmitzi female that is only about 1-1.5” in leg span that just made a dud sac. Either they mature MUCH smaller than I thought they do or she’s done something I didn’t know Araneomorphs could do. I’ve been keeping spiders for like 10 years now, but never have I seen a female this far from maturity lay a dud. Is this something they do often that I’ve somehow just never witnessed?
I have no idea myself but it is quite intriguing
can’t wait to see if some people know more about the subject because I’ve never seen that either😮
 

chanda

Arachnoking
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Spiders of any given species can mature at different sizes, depending on the amount of food, the temperature, and other environmental conditions they experienced while growing up - and most likely depending on their genetics as well. I've had two different females of the same species (Dolomedes okefinokensis) that both laid fertile egg sacs, even though one female was twice the size of the other. I've experienced the same with Hogna carolinensis, though the size differential was not as great. I also had a female Argiope argentata that created egg sacs while still quite small. (She didn't get any bigger - she was done molting and fully mature - but she was kind of stunted in size. It wasn't until later that I realized just how big they can really get!)

And of course, with longer-lived spiders (Mygalomorphs) that continue to molt after achieving sexual maturity, they can be sexually mature and capable of creating fertile egg sacs - but still have quite a bit of growing yet to do.

To the best of my knowledge, if she's laying an egg sac, she's mature.
 

ReignofInvertebrates

Arachnoprince
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Spiders of any given species can mature at different sizes, depending on the amount of food, the temperature, and other environmental conditions they experienced while growing up - and most likely depending on their genetics as well. I've had two different females of the same species (Dolomedes okefinokensis) that both laid fertile egg sacs, even though one female was twice the size of the other. I've experienced the same with Hogna carolinensis, though the size differential was not as great. I also had a female Argiope argentata that created egg sacs while still quite small. (She didn't get any bigger - she was done molting and fully mature - but she was kind of stunted in size. It wasn't until later that I realized just how big they can really get!)

And of course, with longer-lived spiders (Mygalomorphs) that continue to molt after achieving sexual maturity, they can be sexually mature and capable of creating fertile egg sacs - but still have quite a bit of growing yet to do.

To the best of my knowledge, if she's laying an egg sac, she's mature.
Thanks for your input. I suppose the slings that I bought may just be from a bloodline with a much smaller adult size. It’s also strange to me that when I google the species name there are hundreds of pictures of individuals with bright yellow legs, but my females are showing barely any color. Genetics are weird.
 

ReignofInvertebrates

Arachnoprince
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I was able to take some pictures of my specimens the other day so I figured I’d post them here. I’ve come to the conclusion that this female must be mature since she laid a sac, but she’s only about 1-1.5” in leg span and doesn’t have the vibrant coloring that is typical in this species. It’s sort of disappointing since I think H. schmitzi is a beautiful species.

4B320717-CF08-475E-ACEF-B926CA805850.jpeg

Here’s a male that I believe is also mature. The coloration is much closer to what you’d expect but he’s a pygmy just like the female.

4ED46F21-F14C-4A2E-A6C9-6FB16887CF60.jpeg
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
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Spiders of any given species can mature at different sizes, depending on the amount of food, the temperature, and other environmental conditions they experienced while growing up - and most likely depending on their genetics as well.
We've got a H Venatoria with massive boxing gloves cruising our bedroom for the past couple of weeks. He's just over a 1" legspan, about 1/3rd the normal adult male size around here.
 

NYAN

Arachnoking
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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but I believe you were sold another species. Your specimens don’t really resemble H. schmitzi
 

ReignofInvertebrates

Arachnoprince
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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but I believe you were sold another species. Your specimens don’t really resemble H. schmitzi
Thanks for your input. I got them from NY Insect Zoo, he has a lot of experience with Araneomorphae but I suppose it’s possible he made a mistake or they were misidentified before being imported.
 
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