Stacey the golden-web spider (Nephila Pilipes)

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
We have a web! (Sort of)

P_20200925_085320.jpg

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Stacey's web!

Over the last few days, I tried feeding Stacey more flying prey. Namely a moth and a dragonfly. The moth was the first to be released. It flew around for a while and the dumb thing hit the hot UV light and died. Tong-fed it to Stacey, and she took it much more aggressively than she normally takes crickets.

The dragonfly was released and it flew around the room for about 24 hours. There was no way Stacey could catch it, but I was hoping it would trigger the "this area has prey" instincts.
Finally, I smacked it and tong-fed it too, and again she took it very aggressively. I feel she has a preference for flying stuff then?

Anyways i had also been dusting her barrier web with pollen. I had read that scientists have found that juvenile N. Clavipes take up to 25% of their diet from pollen stuck on their webs, so i thought it was worth a shot too.

So something must have gone right with whatever I did, because over the next few days Stacey started exploring more and adding more anchor points to her crappy barrier web.

And this morning, we have a web! Albeit a really crappy one. It's messy, haphazard, and has holes so big an elephant could waltz through it. But it is clearly an orb web, so I'm still happy! She sometimes walks around it doing some work, so maybe tomorrow we'll see something more decent.

P_20200925_085334.jpg
 
Last edited:

LiseeLou

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 16, 2020
Messages
9
This thread is a fantastic journey. I can’t wait for the update. We have a cat-faced spider (araneus gemmoides) who lives outside of our kitchen window and builds gorgeous webs. I wish I had the guts to bring her inside, but I like my pet spiders safe in jars, and as she is bigger than my thumb and makes webs as big as a meter across, that doesn’t seem feasible. Unfortunately we live in a pretty cold place so she won’t last the winter, but it’s been an amazing treat to watch her build.
Stacey is special, and her webs are clearly effective, seeing as she is CHONKY 🤣. Have you seen the pictures of spiders who built webs while in low orbit/low gravity? Maybe Stacey is from Krypton and we just don’t have sufficient gravity for her? JK, I seriously love this story and sweet Stacey. Thanks!
 

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
This thread is a fantastic journey. I can’t wait for the update. We have a cat-faced spider (araneus gemmoides) who lives outside of our kitchen window and builds gorgeous webs. I wish I had the guts to bring her inside, but I like my pet spiders safe in jars, and as she is bigger than my thumb and makes webs as big as a meter across, that doesn’t seem feasible. Unfortunately we live in a pretty cold place so she won’t last the winter, but it’s been an amazing treat to watch her build.
Stacey is special, and her webs are clearly effective, seeing as she is CHONKY 🤣. Have you seen the pictures of spiders who built webs while in low orbit/low gravity? Maybe Stacey is from Krypton and we just don’t have sufficient gravity for her? JK, I seriously love this story and sweet Stacey. Thanks!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed the updates on this fat, lazy thing :rofl:

Her web is clearly terrible because it took me 30mins to try to get a cricket stuck on it. It kept falling off cos the gaps are way too big. You know when your parents say "you can't have dessert till you finish your homework" and you just scribble a half-hearted excuse of a homework? Yep.

At least it's really strong, so I'll be heading out to find a moth or dragonfly big enough to get trapped in her web today. I somehow pamper this chonky girl waaaay too much.

You'll be surprised though, orbweavers adapt really well, and even in an enclosure they will adapt their web sizes to fit. The only issue is that in temperate climates, they seem to know when winter is coming even if you keep them warm, and die off naturally:sad:

Spider Yoga

So Stacey hasn't been eating, I do not know if she's just not hungry enough to want to bother or is close to a molt. But to play it safe i have held off feeding her. She still drinks every morning when I mist her.

Recently though, I noticed Stacey has this habit of hanging out in this weird, contorted position:

P_20200925_092010.jpg

I have no idea why, but sometimes she gets back up into a normal position When she is walking around the web, even upside down, she can hold her abdomen up just fine as well, so I am not too worried. Has my spider reach the epitome of laziness, that she can't even hold her own butt up anymore? In any case, I am just watching her for now. She's fat enough, so even if she's not close to a molt i think leaving her alone for a while might be good.

P_20200926_183532.jpg

When she does stand in her Nephila pose though, she is very majestic. Especially since she has parked her web right in front of the spotlights.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
It's dinnertime!

View attachment VID-20201002-WA0020.mp4

I've been posting so much about Stacey, but I realised i never show her during chow time, which is one of the more interesting parts of keeping an orbweaver.

Today I caught a moth and released it near her web to watch nature at work...Then I realised, Stacey's web isn't very sticky. I shouldn't have expected any less from the laziest spider in the world.

The moth bounced on her web like a trampoline, but the amazing thing was the SPEED at which Stacey moved on her web. It's like an OBT on flat ground. She's usually scared of any tiny movement in her web, but with the moth, she just viciously chased it as it fluttered around. This girl is a terrible orbweaver I swear.

Then, the impossible happened. She SNATCHED the moth out of the air. This girl does NOT behave like an orbweaver at all really. After that normal orbweaver business resumed. She injected her venom, and started wrapping up her prey in silk. She always does one thing I love: after wrapping up her food, she holds it with a thread attached to her hind leg, and walks back to her hub on 7 legs, like someone carrying groceries home. It's hilarious too watch!

Anyways I was too late to film that, so here's a photo of Ms. Chonky eating.

IMG-20201002-WA0015.jpg

Anyways, Stacey has an adopted sister now. She is in the midst of building her web, and I am leaving her alone for a while, but once it's done I think you all will appreciate this beauty. Till the next post!
 

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
Stacey's New Sister

So it has never been my intention to have 2 orbweavers in the room. Caring for Stacey is already keeping me busy enough, and my room is tiny. But anyways, the wife and I were on one of our usual hikes, and planned to walk past one of our usual Nephila kuhlii's. Except the web wasn't there anymore. It was all twirled up with a stick, probably from a brainless jogger or mischievous kid. We searched around the area, and found her clinging onto some of the remnants of her old web. My wife went into full can-we-adopt-her-please mode, and after "you cruel man" and "I'm adopting her, I'm naming her Xiaohua, and that's that", I relented and into the water bottle she went. I know of another Kuhlii web with a few males too, and this might be a nice opportunity to breed and help the very rare local population.

I released her in the opposite corner from Stacey's web, and up and away she went. Over the next 2 days, she did move a lot, even across my floor, which Stacey never does. But everytime she gets close to Stacey, I put her back in her corner. Slowly her corner started to have webbing all over, and she dangles there mostly. First stage complete!

The second step was to wait for the first "discovery line", as I like to call it. When there is a breeze, they might release a thin, floaty line with a blob of glue at the end. Seeing this line is crucial. Wherever this line lands, that will probably be the basis of her web. Once the line has found purchase, she will start tightening it, so I have to be fast! The line landed on my wife's TV, so I grabbed it, and moved it to the corner of my cupboard. Barely a minute later, she started tightening the line and success! That was her first anchor line. That position was nice and out of the way from usual traffic, had nice sunlight in the morning, and was right in front of my planted wall, so it's perfect. I put the line in the outer corner so I can still crawl under the web to feed my T's.

IMG-20201002-WA0010.jpg
IMG-20201002-WA0008.jpg

Her anchor lines were in a position to get bumped into really easily, so I made a little sign to protect it.
It's in Chinese as my wife demands so, but it says "Xiaohua's website. Keep out." Hopefully this will help prevent us from hitting her web.
Xiaohua, by the way, means flower in Chinese. My wife got to name her this time :p

Photo from Contacts Asia.jpg

Her web is a distance from my T's, so I can still feed and water them fine, but one of the issues I have is that she is right on top of my PC, so I have to figure out a way to mist her without destroying my PC. I will probably fashion a tarp with magnets to stick on the PC during misting sessions.

Photo from Contacts Asia (2).jpg

Finally, I still had some wood left over, so I made a new sign for Stacey. I might be biased, but Stacey is still my favorite baby :kiss:

Photo from Contacts Asia (1).jpg

I will probably find them husbands soon, but for now they are fed, watered and having absolute joy spraying white poop on my black walls. Which I cannot clean because their webs are in the way. :mad:
 

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
Tragedy

Recently Xiaohua has decided to pack up her web and go on a journey. I don't know why, but part of me suspects that her area is just too high traffic, with me working there and needing to feed the T's as well.

Anyways, she wanders around the PC so I'm not too bothered. Then one day, I turned around and noticed Stacey missing. Which is very odd cos Ms. Lazy does not move at all. I searched around for a bit and found both of them below Stacey's web. Stacey was on the floor and Xiaohua was hanging by a thread (literally). They obviously just had a fight.

My wife brought Xiaohua to her room while I tended to Stacey. She was completely lifeless, but had no obvious signs of damage anywhere. I just placed her on my table and mourned her loss for a really long time.

P_20201012_215525.jpg

A miracle

Miraculously though, after about an hour, I noticed Stacey's legs were slightly bent. Which is weird because dead spiders don't move. About 10 minutes later, she started struggling to move a few seconds at a time. She's alive!

I watched her for a few more minutes, and the fat thing suddenly got up and walked off.

View attachment v-20201012-215545-es0_nEq0uvkj_GLjS.mp4

Well there you have it. My girl's a fighter. I let her hang out on my table for a while before putting her back on her web, which she happily hopped on.

Sadly, Xiaohua passed away after a few minutes, so I guess I learnt a lesson, and this will be the last time I keep 2 orbweavers in one room. I honestly am just relieved Stacey is fine.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
I turned around and noticed Stacey missing. Which is very odd cos Ms. Lazy does not move at all. I searched around for a bit and found both of them below Stacey's web. Stacey was on the floor and Xiaohua was hanging by a thread (literally). They obviously just had a fight.
I've been trying to recall everything I've noticed about Nephs in the wild. At a guess, this conflict quite possibly goes on all the time but happens quickly and is unnoticed except for webs suddenly without the spider. We have had three Neph webs on our property this year. By the time I noticed them all three were ragged without occupants. I usually wrote them off as end of the life cycle, dropped out and went to lay eggs and die. So what you have encountered is an alternative scenario I haven't taken into account.
 

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
I've been trying to recall everything I've noticed about Nephs in the wild. At a guess, this conflict quite possibly goes on all the time but happens quickly and is unnoticed except for webs suddenly without the spider. We have had three Neph webs on our property this year. By the time I noticed them all three were ragged without occupants. I usually wrote them off as end of the life cycle, dropped out and went to lay eggs and die. So what you have encountered is an alternative scenario I haven't taken into account.
I guess that's possible too, but I do live in a 3 x 2m room, so I guess the odds of one of them bumping into the other is significantly higher, especially since they only hang out on the ceiling because they cannot physically get any higher. Unless they are actively searching for a competitor's web, I think the chances of such a fight is pretty low. I do always notice a lot of abandoned Neph webs too, so that is something I do wonder about too, seeing that Stacey doesn't ever budge from hers, even when food supply is low.
 

Aline

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 5, 2007
Messages
52
Wow, I love this thread! Thank you for sharing all this with us. Love your room, the setup for your Ts and for Stacy is amazing.

I have kept 3 Nephila (N clavipes if I remember well) in a very large terrarium/tank (maybe around 1,5m across). When they were young and small they were ok with sharing the space but eventually, one of them did eat another. It mostly happened when one of them would leave their web and walk around, especially if it got into the other web. If they were on their own webs there was no issue. (Yes, unfortunately, I repeated the "experiment" a few times. It was in a spider exhibition at a museum so I had several spiders "backstage" and the big tank was on exhibition.)

I really relate to your issues with waiting endlessly for her to make a web, trying to feed her when she didn't have one (although I have to say I didn't have much success with tong feeding), watching them molt etc. It was an amazing species to take care of and I hope I can have another someday!

Keep up the thread! So happy to hear Stacy is doing better!
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
Hey @Ah Lee Wishing to introduce you and Stacey to a friend of mine from years gone by. A very domestic scene with her hubby. She made her web under a roof and did an oddity, making her home horizontal. This was at a Buddhist temple, in the area where the monk studied and spent most of his time. Apparently she liked the company and maintained her web for over a year there rather than find a vertical area.

 
Last edited:

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
Wow, I love this thread! Thank you for sharing all this with us. Love your room, the setup for your Ts and for Stacy is amazing.

I have kept 3 Nephila (N clavipes if I remember well) in a very large terrarium/tank (maybe around 1,5m across). When they were young and small they were ok with sharing the space but eventually, one of them did eat another. It mostly happened when one of them would leave their web and walk around, especially if it got into the other web. If they were on their own webs there was no issue. (Yes, unfortunately, I repeated the "experiment" a few times. It was in a spider exhibition at a museum so I had several spiders "backstage" and the big tank was on exhibition.)

I really relate to your issues with waiting endlessly for her to make a web, trying to feed her when she didn't have one (although I have to say I didn't have much success with tong feeding), watching them molt etc. It was an amazing species to take care of and I hope I can have another someday!

Keep up the thread! So happy to hear Stacy is doing better!
Thank you!

She is all back to normal now and eating well, I'll be doing a new post later on her feeding habits. Your job sounds awesome, i always wished I had a chance to work with spiders as part of my job. They are really an amazing species, even after so long, I am still learning things about them and their behaviour!

Hey @Ah Lee Wishing to introduce you and Stacey to a friend of mine from years gone by. A very domestic scene with her hubby. She made her web under a roof and did an oddity, making her home horizontal. This was at a Buddhist temple, in the area where the monk studied and spent most of his time. Apparently she liked the company and maintained her web for over a year there rather than find a vertical area.

Well she looks well-fed, so the web must be working well! Stacey's old barrier web was also mostly horizontal, I do notice that they will try their best to build their webs such that it stays out of animal (human) traffic, even if it means angling it. All of Stacey's webs and Xiaohua's web were angled in such a way that the anchor lines stayed out of where I usually walked. There are anchor lines all over my room, but none of them have ever got in my way. I think that their spatial awareness is much higher than I thought it was, and that's pretty cool!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
I'll give that a maybe. I once was riding up to the top of a hill in southern Thailand on a motorcycle. We stopped at the top on the edge of a large banana grove. Peering at the trail ahead my eyes were having trouble focusing. Then I saw a Neph. Between every banana tree was a web. Probably over a hundred. I had come within a few feet of riding right through one. Was a real beast walking the bike around the grove on a slippery mud slope to preserve all the construction... and avoid taking a couple dozen 8 legged decorations and great masses of web all over my bod home as a bizarre naturalists uniform.
 

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
I'll give that a maybe. I once was riding up to the top of a hill in southern Thailand on a motorcycle. We stopped at the top on the edge of a large banana grove. Peering at the trail ahead my eyes were having trouble focusing. Then I saw a Neph. Between every banana tree was a web. Probably over a hundred. I had come within a few feet of riding right through one. Was a real beast walking the bike around the grove on a slippery mud slope to preserve all the construction... and avoid taking a couple dozen 8 legged decorations and great masses of web all over my bod home as a bizarre naturalists uniform.
That sounds like a really cool place to be at! Also the Neph you saw at the temple, were there many? I've read somewhere before that some temples are famous for having lots of Nephs hanging around structures, but I can't seem to find the sourcr anymore.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
I've read somewhere before that some temples are famous for having lots of Nephs hanging around structures, but I can't seem to find the sourcr anymore.
It depends on the temple and the abbot, and to some extent the local Buddhist council. Some temples are neatness fanatics, cleaning away everything that isn't opulence. (I call those temples 3Ms. Merit Making Monstrosities). My temple where the Neph was was a former forest preserve and nature trail, snatched up by the Buddhist council before the developers could bribe their way in. It remains a forest preserve and the head monk is usually a forest monk that has been asked to take residence. At one time there were a few dozen Nephs and numerous other spiders and such critters. Always changes year by year. Ceilings decorated with web and the monks leaving a light on at night to attract bugs for them. (One fond memory. I was meditating there after the evening chant when several large toads came in. One climbed up in my lap while another snuggled up to my back.). Of course all temples are supposed to extend respect to all living things, but sometimes that is lip service. At any and all temples I won't hesitate to call anyone out that abuses or discomforts animals of any sort. Sometimes I'm a voice in the wilderness, but nobody will challenge or gainsay me. "You think Gautama sitting in Jettana grove had a can of Raid at the ready? GRRRRRR."


Pure crackers and tuna ice cream temple. Have you checked out my three posts here? https://arachnoboards.com/threads/pics-from-where-you-live.275538/post-3108372
 
Last edited:

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
You eat your crickets, young lady!

Remember a few weeks back I fed Stacey a moth and a dragonfly? Yep. The picky thing refuses to eat crickets now. I've tried them live, dead, tong-fed, she just runs away scared. I even tangled it within the web. The little rascal cut it loose and dropped it on the floor.

So tragically, I had to go catch some dragonflies. Yes me, a fat, middle-aged man, running after dragonflies with a tupperware. The things I do for this girl. So after some futile attempts, I fashioned a really crappy extension for my tupperware, and managed to go home with 2 dragonflies.

FB_IMG_1603469539571.jpg

Stacey was beyond delighted. She attacked them both with a crazy fervor. I had never seen her attack crickets like that, even when she's hungry.

P_20201018_174310.jpg
P_20201018_210646.jpg

Seeing her all recovered from her fight and eating well though, it's well worth it. I invested in a cheap net kids use to catch small fish, so now I'm a fat, middle-aged man with a bright blue kid's net. Yay.

P_20201022_154901.jpg

Over the past 5 days she has eaten 4 dragonflies and 2 butterflies. So she wasn't fasting or molting before, she was just being picky. An interesting thing I noticed though, is that she goes absolutely wild when she detects fluttering of wings. With crickets I always had to be as steady as possible when feeding her. Any big movements from me or the cricket and she runs. But with flying stuff, it doesn't matter if the dragonfly is huge and almost pulling the web down when struggling. She runs towards it with a crazy fervor and attacks violently.

So yep, it seems that flying prey is pretty important when keeping a Nephila. She was much less picky when younger. She ate mealworms, which she gave up when she was a teenager, and then crickets, which she gave up now that she is an adult. As long as she's thriving, I guess that's all that matters!

It depends on the temple and the abbot, and to some extent the local Buddhist council. Some temples are neatness fanatics, cleaning away everything that isn't opulence. (I call those temples 3Ms. Merit Making Monstrosities). My temple where the Neph was was a former forest preserve and nature trail, snatched up by the Buddhist council before the developers could bribe their way in. It remains a forest preserve and the head monk is usually a forest monk that has been asked to take residence. At one time there were a few dozen Nephs and numerous other spiders and such critters. Always changes year by year. Ceilings decorated with web and the monks leaving a light on at night to attract bugs for them. (One fond memory. I was meditating there after the evening chant when several large toads came in. One climbed up in my lap while another snuggled up to my back.). Of course all temples are supposed to extend respect to all living things, but sometimes that is lip service. At any and all temples I won't hesitate to call anyone out that abuses or discomforts animals of any sort. Sometimes I'm a voice in the wilderness, but nobody will challenge or gainsay me. "You think Gautama sitting in Jettana grove had a can of Raid at the ready? GRRRRRR."


Pure crackers and tuna ice cream temple. Have you checked out my three posts here? https://arachnoboards.com/threads/pics-from-where-you-live.275538/post-3108372
Thank you for the insight @The Snark ! That is really interesting, and sounds like it will be quite a sight. I can't seem to view the link though, it says i do not have permission.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
I can't seem to view the link though, it says i do not have permission.
You will have to join the Watering Hole thread.

Really nice to see Stacey staying active and healthy. And you! I met a man a few months ago, very neatly dressed elderly gentleman, chasing butterflies with a serious net. Running around a field on the side of the road like he was a little kid. His friend just stayed off to the side and observed. He explained to me he got started identifying butterflies, locale by locale, and now simply can't go past an open field without 'having myself another bout of second childhood'.
 

mmcguffi

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
28
Over the past 5 days she has eaten 4 dragonflies and 2 butterflies. So she wasn't fasting or molting before, she was just being picky. An interesting thing I noticed though, is that she goes absolutely wild when she detects fluttering of wings. With crickets I always had to be as steady as possible when feeding her. Any big movements from me or the cricket and she runs. But with flying stuff, it doesn't matter if the dragonfly is huge and almost pulling the web down when struggling. She runs towards it with a crazy fervor and attacks violently.

So yep, it seems that flying prey is pretty important when keeping a Nephila. She was much less picky when younger. She ate mealworms, which she gave up when she was a teenager, and then crickets, which she gave up now that she is an adult. As long as she's thriving, I guess that's all that matters!
I find the same behavior with my Trichonephila clavipes. One trick that seems to coax her into eating crickets or even dead prey, is to hold the prey with long tongs onto the web and then lightly tap on the end of the tongs with my other hand repeatedly. My (tricho)neph doesn't ravenously pounce on this prey like she would with flying prey, but she sends out some web plucks to figure out whats going on, and then eventually darts out to make a "killing" bite. Something to try maybe with your picky neph! :)
 

Ah Lee

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 30, 2020
Messages
147
Stacey's new flame

It's been a while since the last update! Work has been so crazy as I am trying to build my website (No, really. I am a web developer like Stacey.). Things have settled into a norm now. Stacey's web is getting crappier, she's getting a lot fatter, and she's eating a LOT. Keeping a free-roaming Neph so far has been challenging, but I think I have learnt so much from watching Stacey. I have a whole feeding routine now, but I think that deserves it's own post. I hope that whatever info that might be in this thread will help anyone else who might want to keep a free-roam Neph in future, because I personally found information on free-roam husbandry to be severely lacking.

Anyways the point of this thread is to introduce Stacey's new boyfriend: Flash.

P_20201107_230520.jpg

I found him on one of my hiking trips, and stole him from another Neph since she was busy with another male anyways. I named him Flash because he's red and very fast. I released Flash near one of Stacey's anchors, and he started scuttling away. The moment he landed a leg on one of Stacey's anchors though, his demeanor completely changed. He paused for a moment, then started slowly and meticulously climbing upwards. Occasionally he plucks a web, but Stacey appears to completely ignore his advances. Whether the pluck is part of courtship or just a way to locate a female, I do not know, but this guy moved towards Stacey pretty quickly. Finally, he was beside her. Carefully, he made his way towards her.

Then, their feet touched.

Stacey ran away like she stepped on something gross. Flash obviously had the crap scared out of him by this violent rejection, and ran away too. Oh well. So much for courtship. I turned off the lights and left them to it. Good luck, buddy!

The morning after

The next morning, I went to check on the web and Flash was missing. Well he either ran away or got eaten. I doubt the latter since he's so tiny. But after a bit more searching, I found him. There he was, triumphant and sitting proud on Stacey's abdomen! He was so tiny and was barely noticeable as Stacey always faces me ventral side-forward, but he's definitely there and looking real proud of himself. I fed Stacey her dragonfly and guess what? The little sneaky thing went and snuck in a cheeky one while Stacey was feasting. The nerve! On the first dinner date and in front of her dad, no less!

P_20201108_165553.jpg

Till death do we part

Since then, they have been inseparable. Flash hangs out on Stacey's abdomen 24/7. When it's misting time he zips around drinking off her body (kinky, I know.) When she eats, he eats too. He usually hangs around her mouth where things are getting chomped and there are juices everywhere. Here's a couple photo to show you how sweet they look.

IMG-20201110-WA0021.jpg

He zips around her body really quickly, and sometimes still sneaks in cheeky ones while she's eating. I do not know if they mate that many times, but it seems to much of a coincidence that he is at mating position every time Stacey eats. When they are just chilling, he usually hangs out on the back of her abdomen. It is interesting to see because I didn't know the male sticks to the female that much. In the wild I mostly see them on the web, but maybe there's a dominant male on the female I did not notice. In any case, the lovebirds are doing fine, and Stacey is getting really, really chonky. It she does lay an eggsac, I will probably keep one or two, and release the rest.

If anyone wants a few Nephila pilipes sling, please let me know now so I will plan for you when I do get an eggsac. Just pay for shipping, and promise to take good care of them!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Top