Sling Behavior?

Iktomi

Arachnoservant
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 16, 2002
Messages
539
Hey all. Yesterday I watched my 1/4" Curly Hair building a wall of dirt and webs around his little vial. It was so cool! He pushed pieces of dirt up with his front and/or his back and webbed them up. He seems to be going around the entire inside wall of the vial. I assume he's building a place to molt, but didn't know they did more than just push dirt around. Anyone else seen this?
 

Olan

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 23, 2002
Messages
857
My young Eupalestrus campestratus makes large towers outside her burrows. She piles the dirt up and webs it in place. I have never seen her just stick dirt to the walls though.
 

MrT

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
2,171
Curly slings can be quite the little earth movers. Mine was a burrower. It still has its underground living area. It has a exit that comes up in the middle of its enclosure, so when a cricket walks by the hole, BANG!!! out pops Curly and down goes the meal.=D

Good luck, Ernie
 

Botar

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 27, 2002
Messages
1,441
Inktomi,

I've seen that as well. I've got a batch of curlies and those that don't build extensive burrows will often build the walls like you described. They are some interesting little critters.

Botar
 

arachnopunks

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 10, 2002
Messages
391
Ours do the same thing. We watched most of our burrowers build their living quarters. They web over the dirt, roll up a clump, and transport the clump outside their quarters. Our larger burrowers pick up larger clump and we have seen them use their fangs to carry. The slings seem to use both fangs and pedipalps. It is quite interesting.
 

phoenixxavierre

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 9, 2002
Messages
1,293
Oh yeah, curlyhairs love to dig! Once they reach 2 inches or so I usually move them into a 1 gallon rubbermaid nealy filled with dirt.
Never fails that they dig a burrow clear to the bottom!
And what's really cool is they generally dig the burrow against the side of the container so you can see them while they are in their burrow! I must say, curlyhairs are one of the coolest tarantula species!

Paul
 

Slide

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 26, 2002
Messages
63
Yup, my little (1/2", or so) albo sling did that to me one day, too. I wasn't accustomed to seeing it do much other than sit there and stare at me. About four or five days later, though, I came home from work and there was no sling! I double checked the enclosure, and there was no way (that I could see) for it to have escaped, so I picked up the vial and examined it a bit more closely. Phenomenal burrow. Never comes out anymore, unless there's food to be had. Hope I get to see more of the thing when it gets older, but so long as it keeps it's burrow near the wall of the enclosure, I'll be fine.. :)
 
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