Third Instar L. Variolus Report

[Quetzalcoatl Nyarlathotep]

Hello dear friends, I do apologize for not posting lately, as I have been tending to more trivial matters. In any case, I thought I would do another one of these reports to help my fellow araneophiles. So, from what I have observed these past few days, is a drastic increase in feeding. The males do not yet have their pedipalps, but can be distinguished by what I can only describe as practice of the mating ritual, in which the male vibrates the web of a female upon approach. This means, if I'm not mistaken, the females are already producing the sex hormones needed to attract a mate. For now, they are living in relative harmony within a 20 gallon terrarium with many different climbing structures and hides for which to establish territories. As well, some of those who I have sexed as females are already quite dark in color, resembling macabre droplets of deoxygenated blood, as they are not yet quite coal black in the legs and cephalothorax. I have found that it is easiest to feed them at this stage with dewinged green blow flies. flesh flies are a little too hardy, so one would need only remove the raptorial legs to ensure that the flesh fly will not gain a strong foothold on nearby debris. It may be cruel to the fly, but the spiders are beyond the importance of flies and men in my personal opinion. At any rate, if they are in their second instar, simply remove all legs and place the prey item of any size within the communal web, and watch the feeding frenzy commence! I have had only four cases of cannibalism so far in my dutiful watch over my children. Most of them have already established micro-territories within the terrarium until I acquire the funds to purchase large kritter keepers en masse. Well, I depart with many irrelevant ramblings, but I suppose that's what you get when you read the articles of your silent watcher.