Super Mutant Spider Of Fertility?

[The Spider Faery]

Some of you may know that I've been blessed with several egg sacs from my Steatoda triangulosa. However, it's gotten to the point where it may not be a blessing but a curse, lol. Maybe it's payback for all those spiders I killed in my arachnophobic youth, but this seems like an anomoly. My female just keeps laying sac after sac after sac and so far they've all been fertile! As of today she's laid sac number 9 since the beginning of this year! :?

A little background info. I did not breed her. I found her in my home, decided to keep her in a container, and then she immediately started with the sac laying.


Can anyone explain how this little lady is sooo fertile? I read that they only lay 3-4 sacs on average.

 

[TomM]

Some of you may know that I've been blessed with several egg sacs from my Steatoda triangulosa. However, it's gotten to the point where it may not be a blessing but a curse, lol. Maybe it's payback for all those spiders I killed in my arachnophobic youth, but this seems like an anomoly. My female just keeps laying sac after sac after sac and so far they've all been fertile! As of today she's laid sac number 9 since the beginning of this year! :?

A little background info. I did not breed her. I found her in my home, decided to keep her in a container, and then she immediately started with the sac laying.


Can anyone explain how this little lady is sooo fertile? I read that they only lay 3-4 sacs on average.

If you are feeding her very well it helps in egg production. As soon as I started feeding my S. grossa more, she dropped 4 sacs, probably going on 5 by the way she's looking.

 

[Moltar]

Latro's do the same thing. It's like a machine, bug in one end, eggs out the other, repeat as necessary...

 

[The Spider Faery]

I think you might be right, Tom. She seems to drop everytime she finishes a nice meal of one or two gutloaded pinhead crickets. I should stop being so generous with her feedings (which are nourishing her babies), otherwise like Moltar said, the cycle might never stop!

 

[Widowman10]

latrodectus geometricus- 33 eggsacs.

'nuff said.

 

[Moltar]

latrodectus geometricus- 33 eggsacs.

'nuff said.

Holy flinging monkeycrap! That's a lot. I've heard of like, 8 or ten or more but sheesh, 33?!?! That's gotta be one sore Latro.

 

[The Spider Faery]

You just blew me out of the water with that comment, Widowman10. And here I thought my spider was breaking some kind of a record!

 

[malevolentrobot]

mine's already done three (probably going on four) since i found her about a month or two ago. i never realised the correlation between feeding and her dropping them.

crap, she's probably going to do it again then because she looks huuuuuge.... :S

 

[The Spider Faery]

She's at sac #10 now. :wall: Can't wait to set these slings free soon, now that the weather's getting milder.. As much as I want to keep the mom, if she doesn't slow down, I'll be setting her free and keeping one of her (no chance of being gravid) babies instead!

 

[TomM]

She's at sac #10 now. :wall: Can't wait to set these slings free soon, now that the weather's getting milder.. As much as I want to keep the mom, if she doesn't slow down, I'll be setting her free and keeping one of her (no chance of being gravid) babies instead!

You should just keep releasing the slings but keep the mom to see how many she'll have.

 

[Widowman10]

yes definitely. and actually if you re-mate her, she'll produce even more.

 

[ZergFront]

latrodectus geometricus- 33 eggsacs.

'nuff said.

If there is someone up there, don't have me come back as a L.geometricus!

I wish some tarantulas reproduced like that. :drool:

My Zoropsis female had just three egg sacs before she died. After what cyanocean posted, I think I'm glad that was her max. I still have over 20 of her daughters; some are starting on their way to be mothers already.

 

[The Spider Faery]

I still have over 20 of her daughters; some are starting on their way to be mothers already.

Some of them grow quickly. Take the last spiderling standing from one of the original sacs (I keep the slings from each sac together)...All of its siblings are gone, since they cannibalized each other, and this last one probably ate the last of them and is now a chubby mini replica of the mother, already around about a quarter of her size! I think I'm going to keep this one.

 

[The Spider Faery]

For those of you interested in the continuous tally of egg sacs....As of today she's laid sac #11!

Just when I thought it was the end of it all...and I cut back on her feeding too.

Well the good news is that by the end of the month the weather should be nice enough to set them free outside.

 

[Widowman10]

you should find another male, re-mate her, and see how many total eggsacs she can get to.

 

[The Spider Faery]

@: Widowman...As it stands, she may not even be done dropping sacs from her first romp with a male! I don't think I want to even think about more.

 

[Widowman10]

once sac numbers start dropping, time for fresh swimmers! you've got a good thing going documenting this, keep on with it!

 

[JC]

latrodectus geometricus- 33 eggsacs.

'nuff said.

Ouch !

 

[ZergFront]

Some of them grow quickly. Take the last spiderling standing from one of the original sacs (I keep the slings from each sac together)...All of its siblings are gone, since they cannibalized each other, and this last one probably ate the last of them and is now a chubby mini replica of the mother, already around about a quarter of her size! I think I'm going to keep this one.

Haha, I just kept all the spiderlings that looked the biggest in leg span and carapace, not gut size. I have yet to get a MM from any of the survivors.

I still have about 8 that haven't been paired up. The MM my dad brought home finally slowed to a stop this week but I have 4 egg sacs and growing. I had to take one of them from the mom because there was a hole in the sac and some of the eggs were floating in her water dish.

---------- Post added at 06:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:54 PM ----------

For those of you interested in the continuous tally of egg sacs....As of today she's laid sac #11!

Just when I thought it was the end of it all...and I cut back on her feeding too.

Well the good news is that by the end of the month the weather should be nice enough to set them free outside.

Wow, busy busy bee. Most spiders would die of exhaustion after that!

 

[The Spider Faery]

Wow, busy busy bee. Most spiders would die of exhaustion after that!

And most spider owners would die of exhaustion after that. She's keeping me on my toes...