P. irminia hunting tactics

[WyvernsLair]

I received a free P. irminia sling with an order earlier in the month. She is probably 1/2" to maybe 3/4" in size. I know I have her in a container that is likely 4-5 times larger than what she really needs to be for her size, but having heard how much fun it can be to rehouse them, I chose to go big to reduce the need to such activities. She set up a web house in one corner on the ground and has built a nice tent going up the side. I've noticed she likes be partway out of the web house when she's hungry so its pretty easy to gauge when it's time to feed her. Tonight I found her hanging out on the opposite side of the cage. I pick up the cage thinking that the movement will startle her back to the web house, but nope. Still chillin'. Being that the cage is fairly large, I throw in 8 or so wingless fruit flies (less waste than the typical flightless) to insure that she is able to find some of them easy. Little did I know that in the past two weeks she's fully explored that cage and laid trip lines in several spots... heck she even booby trapped the water dish (soda cap)! She immediately pounced on one fly on the side of the cage. Then another hit a trip line over by a fake leaf.. she ran over and jumped on the leaf and kinda swung around the leaf where she ended up hanging upside down from a thin web line stretching from the leaf to the side of the cage. She now has 2 flies in her grasp.. regains her footing and gets back up on the leaf. Oh.. a fly has fallen into the water dish .. she reaches out and starts reeling him in. That's how I found out about the lines in the water LOL. Unfortunately the fly managed to run faster than she could reel him in so she gave up and let the webbing spread back out over the water. But oh there is another fly walking on the ground.. pounce. mouth is pretty full now.. but she grabs it with her front legs and holds it down and carefully maneuvers it up to where her fangs can grab and hold it... almost like a cat playing with a ball lol. Ok, time for a break... secure the mushball of fruit flies onto the side of the cage and then go get a drink of water. ... come back.. yup .. mushball still there.. go back to the water dish. Now she's back over by the mushball... after a few minutes, she retrieves her mushball...rearranges it a little bit and re-secures it to the side of the glass. looks like she's waiting for any more ambushes before deciding to take what she has back home to eat...

I thought these little suckers were supposed to hide most of the time and come out in the dark of night. She's just out and about in plain sight of day. Has anyone else noticed this type of hunting tactic with irminia slings? web traps and such? or do you think she did it because of the size of the enclosure?

 

[Talkenlate04]

At 1/2-3/4" you can move up from flys and try a small cricket, or a baby roach if you have any. Shes clearly wants to eat, Maybe she just wants a more satasfying meal.