Olios giganteus spinning a web sac - my first breeding!

[Dovey]

I figured the mating was successful when she started bulking up significantly in the abdomen. She's taken a meal every day for the last two weeks and has drunk a lot more water than usual. Now she has sealed herself into a large cocoon, I assume to spin a sac and lay her eggs.

Any advice from experienced keepers out there? Are they good mothers? And what are the chances of the eggs being duds or her eating the sac or some such catastrophe? Should I continue to spritz as usual (it is monsoon season here in the Sonoran Desert), or keep her habitat dry?

 

[pannaking22]

Sounds like a success then! Sparassids tend to make very good mothers and take good care of their egg sacs. Eggs are probably good and you don't really have to worry about her eating them unless she's really really stressed. Regular misting shouldn't hurt anything though.

 

[Dovey]

Excellent! Thanks for your help!

 

[Dovey]

Right. So she constructed the large chamber sac on Monday and Tuesday and has been hanging out inside since, resting I assume. The chamber is sizeable and roomy for her to maneuver within, 2x3 inches and roughly egg-shaped. She spun the egg sac-within-a-sac this afternoon (Friday) on the bottom floor of the chamber, and I think she is either laying eggs now or soon will be. I can only see a shadow outline with a low wattage pen light...don't want to stress her out.

 

[Ratmosphere]

Congratulations!

 

[Dovey]

I have noticed that she is actually carrying the egg sac around inside her large webbed enclosure. Sometimes it's at the top, sometimes at the bottom, sometimes to one side or the other. How clever of them to spin that outer cocoon to protect themselves as well as the eggs.