Stacey's Web Development Co.

[The Snark]

Not to tell you your business but that wall behind her web and to the right. Strikes me as a perfect spot for a reproduction of one of the masters to compliment her efforts. Maybe a Rembrandt, dark and subtle, helping enhance the web visibility. Perhaps the master himself. All about light and shadows. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Selfportrait_Rembrandt1641.jpg

 

[Ah Lee]

Not to tell you your business but that wall behind her web and to the right. Strikes me as a perfect spot for a reproduction of one of the masters to compliment her efforts. Maybe a Rembrandt, dark and subtle, helping enhance the web visibility. Perhaps the master himself. All about light and shadows. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Selfportrait_Rembrandt1641.jpg

That exact wall, however, has been stipulated as a site for a wedding photo, after an indignant wife complained that I took down our wedding photo to make space for Coffee's house

I'm just very reluctant to drill a hole now as that would mean scaring the living crap out of Coffee.

 

[The Snark]

after an indignant wife complained that I took down our wedding photo to make space for Coffee's house

Holmes, you all be treading on very thin ice there. Just saying.

 

[Ah Lee]

Aggressive expansion

Our CEO Pepper finally took down her ratty web after a few weeks of it falling into disrepair. Since then she has been wandering the room seemingly looking for a new site. Sometimes she sets up a crappy platform like Stacey and I get to feed her, then she moves again.

Last night she finally found a nice little spot with sunshine and a nice breeze.

Right on top of my workdesk.



That is just terribly rude, because I told her that is the only place she can't build a web.

But seeing she's hungry, I let it slide. Her web is quite literally the centerpiece of my room. It is very hard to take a photo of it, but it occupies the whole width of my room, about 2.4m across.



Upon closer inspection, her spider-sense meant that I actually can still tolerate her web being there. Her anchor points were well out of the way of my workspace, and she even made an arch for me to reach over and close the windows.

I am still quite convinced their spatial awareness is pretty strong, I try to highlight the main anchor points of her web below.



Guess I have nothing really to complain about. The only issues are going to be misting her, and her pooping all over my nice black curtains. Thankfully poopy time usually comes with misting time, so I think I can make it work.

Now that the company web is connected to the world wide web, our CEO gets a well-deserved butterfly.



Her colors have become a lot darker, and only really show up in bright sunlight now.

Web observations

This web Pepper has built is very similar to the last ones built by Stacey. They are definitely not gold, and the gaps between the threads are huge. You could throw a dubia clean through it. But it is strong. Very strong.

Then it hit me. I have upgraded Pepper and Stacey to full-sized dragonflies ever since they reached adulthood. And this web is perfect for catching them. Widely-spaced threads with no gold coloring means they are very invisible, especially for sharp-eyed dragonflies. The threads are not very sticky, but strong enough to tangle a dragonflies strong wings and legs. Could it be then, that this is a response to prey type? My wife always just says she is lazy, but I believe these amazing spiders somehow are a lot more adaptable then we give them credit for.

Holmes, you all be treading on very thin ice there. Just saying.

Thankfully, the offending spider is terribly adorable with her little fat butt and beautiful web. So much so that my wife actually caught a midge for her, and took a video of the feeding.

View attachment V_20210317_093045_ES0.mp4

 

[BobBarley]

Loving this thread! Keep it up

 

[Charliemum]

Just sat and devoured this thread ! I love it its so unique and very interesting. I can't wait to read the next installment. Ps your girls are beautiful

 

[Ah Lee]

Loving this thread! Keep it up

Just sat and devoured this thread ! I love it its so unique and very interesting. I can't wait to read the next installment. Ps your girls are beautiful

Thank you so much for your comments, and for joining us here! I love these girls to bits, and it means a lot to me that there are like-minded people like y'all that appreciate them as well.

Company websites

It's a bright sunny day today at SWDC, and it's time for another company update!

The morning sun lit up Pepper's web, and I can now show you all how different it is from her old ones.





You can see how huge the gaps are, something I do not see even in wild Nephilas her size. And the curious thing is that both Stacey and Pepper built the same kind of webs when they reached adulthood.

I still think it is a prey-related thing. So I've been feeding Pepper exclusively butterflies now to test my hypothesis.

Meanwhile though, the sunlight beaming through Pepper really brings out her reds!



Coffee's website Version 3.0

Coffee seems to really love her little corner. Like her Mom, she gradually builds her web larger and larger every time she does a rebuild. This is the third full rebuild she has done.



Her web is really, really invisble. I had to push the clarity and artificially boost the sharpness in Photoshop to get this, but you can clearly see why it is called a waterfall web now!

She is already using the full length of the space, so I might need to upgrade her housing a few months down when she feels that space is lacking.

Meanwhile, Coffee has become really elusive and secretive, and I just barely get glimpses of her when she hunts. Most of the time all I see is a little butt.

She molted 2 days ago, and today is back on hunting mode, so I managed to get this shot before she disappeared again.



She is quite large now, about shy of an inch, and has started developing bright yellow markings and a much darker color. I'm interested to see when she starts getting Mom's red markings, if ever.

It's a boy!

Our first confirmed male has appeared, about 3 months from the day of hatching. Surprisingly he was the 2nd biggest of the group, so it seems that their gender was not the main factor affecting their rate of growth.



I released him along with the 3rd batch of Skittle's babies yesterday. Meanwhile I am getting the incubator all cleaned and prepped for the 4th batch.

Pepper isn't showing any signs of pregnancy, but she's quite fat now so there's that.

My photo-taking attempts of Skittles has once again failed, as she runs for her life the moment the tank doors are open. I left them open so hopefully the next time she comes out, I can actually take some decent photos of her.

Finally, it seems to be midge season here, and at least 2-3 turn up in my toilet everyday. That means Coffee is a happy girl!

 

[The Snark]

Coffee, the Beverly Hills Over Achiever. I have always equated excessive web building as leading to a shorter life span. I hope this is not the case. It's very fascinating how different the webs are with spiders all from the same hatching and similar environments. This is definitely new territory being explored.

 

[Storm76]

Just went through this thread. I do love the style in which news are reported and the little pieces of story pieces of a "Web Company" make me smile. It's a very nice thread, about some gorgeous spiders and a lovely little company run by them. Speaking of - how well do they pay their hooman slaves?

 

[Ah Lee]

Just went through this thread. I do love the style in which news are reported and the little pieces of story pieces of a "Web Company" make me smile. It's a very nice thread, about some gorgeous spiders and a lovely little company run by them. Speaking of - how well do they pay their hooman slaves?

Thank you!

They pay terribly. I tried asking for some pay once and got something like 'do it for the exposure' and 'all you need is love'. Followed quickly by 'where's my food?' and 'clean up the poo please'.

This company survives simply by freeloading off my struggling startup and generally acting cute.

Coffee, the Beverly Hills Over Achiever. I have always equated excessive web building as leading to a shorter life span. I hope this is not the case. It's very fascinating how different the webs are with spiders all from the same hatching and similar environments. This is definitely new territory being explored.

Coffee's Web Version 4.0

As if to prove Uncle Snark's point, our little over-achiever has today decided that since she can't build the web any taller, she'll build it wider.

Her new web now extends all the way to the end of the branch, and a little further in the other direction too.



That's it, that is the physical limitation of her current house now. I honestly thought she would take a few months at least before she is big enough to fill this space. Go figure!

Food!

Such performance is definitely worthy of a bonus, so Coffee gets another midge.

This has to be the favorite part of my morning. To watch her pop out and go "Is there food?!"

She'll sometimes pluck her web to be sure, and will feel anything in her web immediately. "There IS food!"

The crazy little thing will make a mad dash for her food, while being attached to a dragline. She'll grab her food, and then zip up the dragline while swinging wildly.

 

[The Snark]

Neither my wife nor I have seen anything near that intricate a web in a Neph, and she's banged her head through more than her fair share of them. One explanation is she's using much more than the usual three main guy lines. You be in uncharted territory here. Keep documenting!

 

[Ah Lee]

SUCCESS!!!!!!!

It's been a while since the last update. My favourite game Monster Hunter dropped on 26th, and I had been playing it whenever I was free. There were lots of exciting things happening here at SWDC, and I would have a big update post soon now that the game launch hype has died down.

But for now, the biggest, most exciting thing of 2021 has finally happened.

Pepper has laid an eggsac!

I first started noticing something was amiss when she started getting really fat. Usually they get fat to a point when they start being only semi-interested in food, but Pepper was ravenous and just kept eating and eating.

Then last night, she suddenly disappeared, and reappeared this morning looking really skinny.

I combed the entire room, and after 30 minutes, I found this.



A fluffy, orange/gold eggsac hidden below my table, YESSSS! I removed it with a penknife, it was much easier to remove than Skittle's bomb-proof eggsacs. And it's pretty large, about the size of a meatball.

I am so excited for it to hatch now, I really do hope it's not a dud!

So once again, I am offering up the babies to anyone who can give them a good home. Just pay for your own shipping, and let me know how many you want.

I plan to ship them as soon as they disperse, so hopefully their yolk reserves can last them till they reach you.

I'm in rather uncharted waters now, but I'm really excited to start caring for them!

 

[Charliemum]

Congratulations Pepper I hope all goes well with them Lee can't wait to see them. So excited for yous

 

[Ah Lee]

Coffee's update

Coffee has been growing really well, she mostly gets midges and alates for dinner, and I have observed so many incredible things about her hunting behavior! Today is catch-up day, and I will collate everything in this post.

First off, I managed to capture her latest molt! It was a 25 minute process from start to finish, and you can watch here if you like. Video has been sped up 10x before everyone falls asleep.

This is her 3 days after her molt. She has darkened a lot now, and her yellow markings are starting to turn a little more orange. I guess they will turn into Mom's red when she gets older?



All-you-can-eat buffet

Last week, there was an alate explosion in my area. There were thousands of winged ants just swarming the area after a heavy rain. I threw one into Coffee's web, and she bit it, wrapped it up, and dangled in at her hub.

That is extremely strange, because she usually eats it right away. Do they then have an innate ability to recognize that certain prey come in swarms, and is just preparing for more to come?

In any case, I threw in another heavier one, and this time she didn't even bother bringing it back home. She just bit it, and pulled some silk out to 'paste' it onto the web. She then went back to the hub to wait again.

I threw a last, really fat one, and witnessed the most incredible thing.



Do you see the huge long hole in the web? The alate was first trapped at the top. Coffee approached cautiously and decided not to bite it. Instead, she broke the web at the sides of the ant and the ant fell down to the next step.

She kept doing this and the ant kept tumbling down, each time increasingly trapped by the broken-off webbing. By the time it got to the bottom, it was helplessly trapped. Coffee did her usual wrapping just to play safe, delivered a quick bite, then ran home.

That is the most incredible thing I have witnessed so far. I have never seen this method of handling potentially dangerous prey!

I repeated the experiment with another ant 2 days later, and have confirmed it: she does this for very large ants. She doesn't even do it for crickets twice the size of that ant. Spiders continue to baffle me with how well-adapted they are to hunting insects, even for one who has lived in a tank all her life.

Unauthorized expansion

Coffee rebuilds her web really often, but rarely the whole thing at once. You can see an obvious line down the middle, and she'll replace it one half at a time. There is a little tuft of silk at the bottom when she's done, so she doesn't ingest it all.

Anyways she recently has been pulling some sneaky draglines out of her little area, which I promptly removed, but that does not seem to deter the little thing. Today I woke up to this.



She not only built her web higher, but extended a separate wing all the way to my monitor. Her hub still remains at the same spot, and she was at least nice enough to leave me a hole at the bottom so I can still reach the pantry. For now I can still accept this, but if she builds it any lower I might have to shift her to Pepper's old spot so she can build as gigantic a web as she likes.

That's about it for little Coffee, I am so glad to see she is growing up really well, she's also getting a little less shy so there's that. I have slowed her feeding to once every 3 days now, but even so she seems to be getting fat quickly. She's a perfectionist like her mom, and rebuilds almost everytime her web gets a little damaged.

 

[Charliemum]

Coffee is such a hard little worker I love her little unauthorised extention such skill in web building. I am in awe. Another brilliant addition to your thread Lee can't wait to read more. Oh and that vid of her molting perfect.

 

[The Snark]

Winged ants are tainted with formic acid. Most spiders know better than to eat or even handle them. I've watched geckos give swarming ants a miss or mistakenly biting one then spitting it out.

 

[Ah Lee]

Winged ants are tainted with formic acid. Most spiders know better than to eat or even handle them. I've watched geckos give swarming ants a miss or mistakenly biting one then spitting it out.

She still eats them happily though. The only food she has reject so far is the day-flying moth (Amata huebneri).



I caught 2 and fed her both on 2 separate occasions, she immediately cut them loose and threw them away. I guess they are pretty unpalatable?

 

[Ah Lee]

Coffee is such a hard little worker I love her little unauthorised extention such skill in web building. I am in awe. Another brilliant addition to your thread Lee can't wait to read more. Oh and that vid of her molting perfect.

Thank you Charliemum, yes she is an amazing little worker! I just realized there is no easy way for me to reach the stuff behind though, so I've moved them all out and that is now officially Coffee territory. I'm only allowing this because she's adorable

 

[Ah Lee]

Sneaky color change

I haven't seen Coffee much lately as she's satiated and mostly hiding, but just before bed i checked on her and there she was, looking really fab.



Her blacks have gotten really black, and her yellow has turned really orange now. She's quite a looker! She's quite different from mom, who has a brown abdomen and greyish carapace. I really dig Coffee's look though!

I bribed her with a moth this morning so she'll come out and we can have some nice photos in the morning sun.



Her web is really well-maintained now, it's a huge orb with a very obvious funnel to her hidey-hole, and lots of trip-wires everywhere, so photography is painful as usual, but so worth it.

In other news, the CEO has shifted. She'll probably be done tomorrow so I'll take some photos and report a lil on her. Till then!

 

[Charliemum]

Awww coffee looks amazing and I can't wait to see what peppers done. I honestly look forward to this thread Lee it's brilliant