Ah Lee
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- May 30, 2020
- Messages
- 147
This is Stacey.
She is a Nephila Pilipes that I bumped into while on a jog 2 months ago. I've seen many before, but she is the youngest I have ever seen in the wild. She had just built a web when a lumbering fat man (me) crashed into it, and she ended up on my hair. So I decided to bring her home.
First thing I did was release her near one of my shelves, and gave her a gentle breeze. Within a few hours, she had her first (very flimsy) web up, and with that, her first mealworm. The mealworm destroyed half her web, but she still ate it happily, but I always fed her pre-killed ones after that.
Stacey's 3rd molt
Stacey has since built 2 webs and molted twice, but the third one I managed to catch her in action. I just finished work one day, looked up at her and realised she was hanging off the web strangely with only 2 legs.
It was extremely exciting because this is the first time I have seen an orbweaver molt. She is secured to the web by a single thread, which looks thicker than normal, like the ones she uses to make her bridge.
Slowly, she popped open her carapace and slowly started pumping her legs out.
It was a slow, but she finally got herself free. Surprisingly the molt remained on the web in her usual stance, it almost looked like she was there. Whether this is a defense mechanism to distract predators while she hardens or merely a coincidence, I do not know. Her new self was translucent, pale and rubbery-looking like an octopus.
She hung like this for a while, letting fluids flow to her legs to stretch them out. You can actually see them growing!
A night's rest later, and she looking good as new, but bigger!
Stacey's new home
One more molt later, Stacey was getting much bigger. She was barely the size of her abdomen now when I brought her home.
Also I am not sure if she was just too pampered or what, but she wouldn't repair her web. It slowly degenerated to the point where there weren't even enough webbing for her to place her legs. She held on with 4 legs, the rest were dangling in mid-air.
It had already been a week since molt, she should have recovered, but she's still not very bothered about her web. I decided to take it down, and build a her a nice place to live out the rest of her life. I bought an old plant shelf and some fake plants to make a canopy.
This is the canopy mounted. I am hoping this will make her feel a little more at home, with leaves she can retreat to if she feels threatened. I also have a UVA/UVB light pointed at her to replicate natural light. Being a diurnal species, I think this might be important to her. I also read in a research paper somewhere that their webs are strengthened by exposure to UV rays.
I added some ropes for additional anchor points. Hopefully with the canopy and ropes, it will be enough for her to want to set up a web there.
Finally, I released her into the area. Her first instinct was always to go up above the canopy into the ceiling. I can understand that she would do that as an arboreal species, so i kept bring her back down, and trying to help her lay guide lines across the ropes. Finally, she found a corner of the rope she seemed to lie and plonked her spidery butt down there. The area is not full of criss-cross lines of webs, which she hangs on, but none of them look like a bridge-line to begin a new web. For now I'm just going to let her be, and see what she does. For the past 2 days I ahve been chasing her down from the ceiling, and that may be stressing her out. So I have decided to just leave her be, and if she wants to make her web somewhere else, so be it. I jsut want her to be happy.
I'll keep updating this thread with more Stacey updates, but for now, that's it!
She is a Nephila Pilipes that I bumped into while on a jog 2 months ago. I've seen many before, but she is the youngest I have ever seen in the wild. She had just built a web when a lumbering fat man (me) crashed into it, and she ended up on my hair. So I decided to bring her home.
First thing I did was release her near one of my shelves, and gave her a gentle breeze. Within a few hours, she had her first (very flimsy) web up, and with that, her first mealworm. The mealworm destroyed half her web, but she still ate it happily, but I always fed her pre-killed ones after that.
Stacey's 3rd molt
Stacey has since built 2 webs and molted twice, but the third one I managed to catch her in action. I just finished work one day, looked up at her and realised she was hanging off the web strangely with only 2 legs.
It was extremely exciting because this is the first time I have seen an orbweaver molt. She is secured to the web by a single thread, which looks thicker than normal, like the ones she uses to make her bridge.
Slowly, she popped open her carapace and slowly started pumping her legs out.
It was a slow, but she finally got herself free. Surprisingly the molt remained on the web in her usual stance, it almost looked like she was there. Whether this is a defense mechanism to distract predators while she hardens or merely a coincidence, I do not know. Her new self was translucent, pale and rubbery-looking like an octopus.
She hung like this for a while, letting fluids flow to her legs to stretch them out. You can actually see them growing!
A night's rest later, and she looking good as new, but bigger!
Stacey's new home
One more molt later, Stacey was getting much bigger. She was barely the size of her abdomen now when I brought her home.
Also I am not sure if she was just too pampered or what, but she wouldn't repair her web. It slowly degenerated to the point where there weren't even enough webbing for her to place her legs. She held on with 4 legs, the rest were dangling in mid-air.
It had already been a week since molt, she should have recovered, but she's still not very bothered about her web. I decided to take it down, and build a her a nice place to live out the rest of her life. I bought an old plant shelf and some fake plants to make a canopy.
This is the canopy mounted. I am hoping this will make her feel a little more at home, with leaves she can retreat to if she feels threatened. I also have a UVA/UVB light pointed at her to replicate natural light. Being a diurnal species, I think this might be important to her. I also read in a research paper somewhere that their webs are strengthened by exposure to UV rays.
I added some ropes for additional anchor points. Hopefully with the canopy and ropes, it will be enough for her to want to set up a web there.
Finally, I released her into the area. Her first instinct was always to go up above the canopy into the ceiling. I can understand that she would do that as an arboreal species, so i kept bring her back down, and trying to help her lay guide lines across the ropes. Finally, she found a corner of the rope she seemed to lie and plonked her spidery butt down there. The area is not full of criss-cross lines of webs, which she hangs on, but none of them look like a bridge-line to begin a new web. For now I'm just going to let her be, and see what she does. For the past 2 days I ahve been chasing her down from the ceiling, and that may be stressing her out. So I have decided to just leave her be, and if she wants to make her web somewhere else, so be it. I jsut want her to be happy.
I'll keep updating this thread with more Stacey updates, but for now, that's it!
Last edited by a moderator: