New species of giant-fishing spider, Ancylometes spec.

Stefan2209

Arachnodemon
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Hey all and specially Steven :)

at the show i attended at the weekend, í had the opportunity to take a look at a new introduced Ancylometes spec.

I´m doing "with spiders" for 8 years now, since 5 years i do hunting spiders exclusively. Over the years i came acrosss some really huge specimen, even bigger than most people have seen them, Phoneutria fera, the former P. keyserlingi and back in the late 90´s i got hold of another Ancylometes spec WC, that was much bigger than the A. bogotensis.

So when i read that there was a "new" species available i thought about the spider i had back then. I hadn´t really been prepared to what was displayed there, i haven´t ever seen such a huge "true" spider! The dealer had a sub-adult male for display purposes with him, that freak had a body-size of 2 inches (5cm) and a legspan of 6 inches (15cm) and still a molt to go....

Slings of this species were for sell and i got some. The buggers are still tiny, but given their genus, growth should be lightning-quick. I really hope some will make it.

Anyway, look for yourself, the setup:



 

Stefan2209

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Part 2

For some reason, i had to split the post...

However, now to the slings:









As this species is "new", mortality- and growth-rate are still to be experienced. Will keep you updated on how the lil fellas will develop.

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Steven

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OK thanx for showing,... ;)
cute little fishingspiders


very curious on how they look after 8moths orso
:drool: :drool: :drool:



PS: Stefan any idea how big Ancylometes rufus get ?
 

Stefan2209

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A. rufus

Steven said:
OK thanx for showing,... ;)
cute little fishingspiders


very curious on how they look after 8moths orso
:drool: :drool: :drool:



PS: Stefan any idea how big Ancylometes rufus get ?
Thank you, i like it, when my pics get appreciated!

Quite funny, you mention A. rufus, i had the same thought yesterday....

To answer your question, i don´t have any "hard" data on A. rufus, but heard some rumble that A. rufus shall be the biggest species within this genus.

There´s a museum in the german town of Karlsruhe (if i remember this right) where they did some research on this genus. I think i´ll get in contact with them and ask if they´d be able (and willing) to do an ID on a molt... That´d give us all some proof. Will post it here, when i got in touch with them.

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Stefan2209

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Steven said:
Just asking about A.rufus as some Belgian collegue-spiderfreaks were discussing if this "new" specie couldn't be the "old" rufus ;)


PDF-file from museum Karlsruhe
Yeah, i thought exactly the same.

I really don´t know if the term "new" means a new encountered species, or just "new" to the european market.

If it´s really A. rufus i guess the guys in Karlsruhe could tell, that´s why i thought about sendimg them a skin. By the way, the pdf you posted, is the study i referred to.

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Crysta

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Hm..where the adults orange?...or am i mistakin?..

My Fishing spider(Dolomedes Tenebrosus) had her last egg sack her 3rd one, and the babies where bright green, or gold. ..this batch was anyways with lesser babies, prolly 50..the others had 200-300 babies in each egg sack and where brown..i guess these guys had dinner in there..lol.. I diden't notice they hatched till I seen they built themselves a nersery web on my desk door...*signs.. the mother starts a web for the egg sack so she can tear it open..they stay with mom for a few days then move out find a sturdy place for there own web and build..they usualy mesure 2-4f depending on the place... I diden't expect them that big till i met this clutch..

Great thing is shes still living, I though she was going to die right away like the last girl.. Should be a thread with her picks somewhere..
lol..i should stop rambling on your thread..

Crysta
 

Stefan2209

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Ancylometes

Hi,

no the adult male i´ve seen at the show had been a very dark-brown (nearly black) colour. I know slings of Anylometes spec to be of orange colour, for that matter...

No rambling noticed from my side, feel free to post about Dolomedes spec as much as you like. While more than one Ancylometes spec is regularly available over here, i haven´t ever seen a Dolomedes spec. So i´m always hungry to learn about the differences of these two genus.

I´m especially in love with D. albineus since i once found pics of this beautiful species. You´re really glad to live in a country where these run free...

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Stefan2209

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Next molt

Hi all,

regarding the Ancylometes it was a quite nervous week to me. I apparently designed their boxes so well, that i came to realize i´m not able to control the slings on a regularly basis. They´re so tiny it´s pure luck to find them inside the boxes.

I once thought, i had a box where the sling died and started to look for the carcass. When i lifted the piece of moss, i realized the tiny sling had crawled beneath the moss! They´re so damn small, they fit in the smallest crevices. :mad: After that event i didn´t try to find the other ones, as i was afraid to crush them whithout even noticing it.

From what i could observe when i got one to see was, they got quite fat. So i assumed at least they were eating. At the middle of the week i thought i could see some very dark legs on single spiders, but i wasn´t too sure about this, cause of the small size.

Todays checking of their enclosures had some nice surprise for me:



They have now something like 0,5cm legspan, still tiny, but you can see the white dots on the abdomen allready...



More of ém after the next molt...

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Sobrino

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It's very cool to meet a person that spider hunts, I still do. Well first of all I'll say the truth and those spiders look beautiful, I wish I had one. I'm looking foward to seeing how they develop over the months. I bet they'll look as amazing as they look now. Oh yeah Where did you get them? Did you purchase it or was it caught? See Ya and that's all for now!
 

Stefan2209

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Hey all,

thanks for the comments!

I didn´t catch the spiders myself, i bought them from a german dealer, who introduced the parents of my slings to europe.

As this species is "new" at least to the european market, i´m myself quite curious how they will develop. I´m quite concerned about mortality, but time will tell....

For the looks, they´re still very tiny, in your measurement-system they´re something like 0,2 inches legspan by now. Still a lot of growing to do...

The adult male i´ve seen looked quite boring by colouration, but the size of the spider really made up for the brown colour. This species is just brute big.

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Stefan2209

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Here we go again

Hello,

today i found the first of the slings had done the next molt.

I´m especially happy whith this particular slings, as this had been one of the few which i was feeding "blind" since more than 10 days. I tried to make the slings as comfortable as can be in their boxes, with the drawback, that i don´t see some of them regurlarly. I numbered all boxes and over the time i came to recognize that there are some slings that i see nearly always when i´m misting and feeding them. On the other hand there are also some boxes where i haven´t seen the inhabitant for more than a week. As long as the fruitflies keep disappearing i guess they do ok however.

So today was a really good day in this matter. Not only that the first of them started to molt again, today i´ve seen each and every sling i have of this species! All are alive and seem to feed well, more than one changed colour to dark-grey which i take for an indicator for a near molt.

So far i´ve got only one loss, which was to no apparent reason and in the very first days. From 13 i got, 12 do well :)

So, here we go:



The outer appearance seems unchanged but the little fella did quite some growing. Now it´s clearly visible with the naked eye that this is gonna be a spider some day... {D



Now they´re 1cm legspan, 0,5cm bodysize, guess the growing will speed up from now on.

Update after the next molt.

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Stefan2209

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Hey,

sorry, no new molt yet. Just thought, i´d post some better pics.







That´s it, see you soon.

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Stefan2209

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3. Molt

Hi again,

the first of the fishers started to molt again. There seems to be some kind of change with body-leg proportions, they look more than hunting-spiders now. Unfortunately, this means they are considerably faster than they had been before....

Enjoy:











More pics soon...

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Stefan2209

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4. Molt

Hi,

yepp, they´re growing fast, next molt already started...

They´re definately ot of the "baby-stage" now. They look and behave like their bigger selfes, damn are they fast :eek: Furthermore they don´t seem to care too much about me, i really have to watch out when doing maintenance duties at their enclosures. They don´t try to attack or even to run away, but some specimen like to climb up my hands and arms as soon as they see an opportunity :confused:









Next update after the next molt, shouldn´t be too long...

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Anthony

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They are doing just great, your methods of keeping them obviously work. Please keep us updated
 

spinnekop

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Hi Stefan,

What temperature do you keep your Ancylo slings?
About 1,5 months ago I got 15 specimen. I keep them in a plastic container with Sphagnum moss. Humididty is about 95% and temperature 24-26°C. They measure now about 1.5 -2cm legspan.
They did well untill about 2 weeks ago. They seemed pretty healthy, active and eat very well untill they have to molt. Either they die during molt or immediately after. Even when molting went perfectly, they lay down on the moss like paralysed and ..... DIE :(
I now have only 2 specimen left. I can't see any mildew and humidity must be allright since the whole enclore is wet and dampy. (humidity measured 95%). So I don't know what's happening. I have no parasites either. Could it be a bacteria infection? I am desperate ! I am wondering if you encountered strange sudden deads after molting as well? Do you have any idea what might be going wrong?
Can you show me a picture of the enclosure set-up of your slings?
Please help me.
Vinmann has new slings available but I don't want to buy any new ones of this semi-aquatic specie untill I know what is going wrong. :( :( :( :( :(
 

Boris Striffler

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Hallo Jungs,

for a thorough ID of Anyclometes you need a bit more than a shed skin. Normally you need a dead female and male, as you have to remove the hair around epigyne region and the embolic region of the bulb.

@spinnekop: I guess humidty is too high for your spiders, I keep mine in "normal" Drosophila tube with soil and do not have any problems.
I experienced some problems with too moist kept spiderlings I was sent this summer. They were dead without any sign except very moist tissue.

Cheers,
Boris
 

Stefan2209

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Hey you two,

@Spinnekop:

I had 5 Slings dead so far, got them 2 months ago. 3 of the deaths were due to bad molt, the other 2 were to no apparent reason. The 3 losses due to bad molt were to my idea caused by malnutrition. Cause of the very tiny size the slings had when i got them, i fed them fruit-flies. For 2 molts everything worked out fine, then the trouble started. I was fortune to stumble across a paper dealing with the effects of mono-type diets on the growth and survival of Lycosids. The author stated, that his findings may be equal applied to most other families as well.

The exclusive feeding of fruit-flies seems to be a bad idea, some substances needed by spiders for growing are not built in Drosophilas. The experiment he carried out brought some devastating results, the group fed only with Drosos and later with crickets had a 75% higher mortality-rate than the group fed with a bigger variety of prey items... Perhaps it might be worth a try to switch food. For me, this solution works out so far, i switched food items to different sorts of crickets and therelike, which i feed with fresh vegetables and fruits before giving it to the spiders. Since i changed prey, i had no further losses so far.

To my enclosures, you can see them on page 1 of this thread, i still keep them in the little boxes. Temperature is something around 20 to 22° Celsius, a little lower at night.
As the boxes have no ventilation holes, i keep them at a humidity of 100%. The latest molt started yesterday evening, 3 out of 8 molted without any problems.

@ Boris:

Good to see you on this board, too!

You´re not the only one i hear of keeping his Ancylometes way drier than i do, quite interesting to me. I have quite the opposite experience with this kind of spiders, slings can tolerate a very high humidity, but will die very soon, if it´s too low just a little bit.
With adults it´s quite a different matter, they tolerate a lower humidity way better than the youngsters do.

Damn, quite a pitty, regarding the ID íng. Would be too nice, if something in life could be simple...
Guess sooner or later there will be some dead adults, but i´d definately like them to be ID éd while still alive....

@ Everybody:

New Pics soon, the little buggers did it again.... :cool:

Greetings,

Stefan
 
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