Rather odd question on drassodes

[The wolf]

This evening I found a spider which appeared to be either of the nigh on indistinguishable drassodes cuprens or lapidosus in her silken cell and in there with her was a male and I just assumed they were mating but after reading this article on the species I wondered if this was just normal behaviour and if so how should I go about collecting her should I just take her or have him as well because they look like great pets also any care tips I have kept gnaphosidae before.
http://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal/p/Summary/s/Drassodes+cupreus

 

[chanda]

"It is not unusual to find a mature male together with a penultimate instar female in the same silken cell" (from the linked article)

Interesting! It sounds very similar to the precopulatory mate guarding one sees in certain lepidoptera, where the males basically stake out the female's pupa and wait for her to emerge (or sometimes don't wait, as with Heliconius sp. that mate with the female while she is still inside her chrysalis!) I don't think I've ever personally witnessed this, but I've read that other spiders engage in this sort of mate guarding, too - including some jumping spiders and crab spiders, just so they can be first in line when she finally does mature. Hurrah for convergent evolution!

If you would like to have babies from your spiders, you should definitely attempt to collect both the male and female. There is a good chance that the female is not quite mature yet, in which case, if you collect her by herself, you will not get a fertile egg sac.

 

[The wolf]

Yes ok very interesting about the butterflies I will go collect her now

 

[The wolf]

She ate the male when I checked for her also she has lain eggs now