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- Apr 20, 2005
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- 615
Over the past couple of years I have seen several threads started by new keepers of Typhochlaena seladonia asking what can be done to trigger the spider to build a trapdoor. Some people suggested drilling a hole into the cork, others suggested to increase the humidity or add lichen flakes. While those suggestions might work (I have never done myself this so have no experience), I thought I'd share my own observations. I have been keeping T. seladonia for about 2.5 years now and it has been a learning experience. Maybe someone will find this post helpful - I have not seen it mentioned anywhere.
My suggestion works for spiders that require relocation to a bigger, upgraded bark slab, or for spiders that voluntarily left their nest in search for a new spot to build a trapdoor.
Most of us acquire T. seladonia as slings, and they usually come with a tiny piece of cork on which they built their trapdoor. Something like this:
If you cannot see the trapdoor on this cork piece, let me help you out. This is a suspected male spider btw.
By the way, if you are planning your T. seladonia purchase, AVOID any spider that does not come with its own trapdoor. Those take much longer to establish if the conditions are not right.
It is clear that this tiny cork piece cannot support this spider as it grows. What I noticed is that the spiders enlarge their trapdoor while growing, but when the area becomes too tight or too small for them they leave the nest and start walking around the top of the enclosure, and if not catered for they usually build a new trapdoor at the top of the container close to the lid, or in a top corner. For some people that isn't really an issue as they can observe the spider, but this makes feeding much more challenging.
At one point I had a spider that left its spot and didn't return to it for over a week. I decided to experiment and ripped off the old, now-deserted trapdoor from the small cork piece, and placed it on a larger piece of bark. This can be done with a tiny drop of glue or a pin, but I found that the silk itself has some adhesive properties and if placed firmly on the cork it doesn't fall off. It seems T. seladonia have very strong affinity to their own silken doors, because the spiders always find the old trapdoor in their searches. This species is extremely shy so normally they want to be hidden. When the spider discovered the old trapdoor it immediately went under it. Hard to see in the following photo, but the spider is in there, and it just spun thin strands of silk to connect the old trapdoor to the new bark:
I can also tell this spider enlarged the trapdoor just a teensy bit by noticing new building materials from the lichen I glued on the bark.
As you can see, I do not drill any holes in the cork, and I use its curved side. I found that T. seladonia will adopt the curved side more readily, and it also makes it easier to feed them on that side of the bark.
The spider will keep enlarging the old trapdoor as it grows, and after some time it will be difficult to distinguish it from the entire cover. In this photo you can just barely see the outlines of the old trapdoor that I once attached to the bark, so I marked it for you to see.
The spider that lives under the above trapdoor is an adult female. I can't end this post without a little bit of color, so here she is.
My suggestion works for spiders that require relocation to a bigger, upgraded bark slab, or for spiders that voluntarily left their nest in search for a new spot to build a trapdoor.
Most of us acquire T. seladonia as slings, and they usually come with a tiny piece of cork on which they built their trapdoor. Something like this:
If you cannot see the trapdoor on this cork piece, let me help you out. This is a suspected male spider btw.
By the way, if you are planning your T. seladonia purchase, AVOID any spider that does not come with its own trapdoor. Those take much longer to establish if the conditions are not right.
It is clear that this tiny cork piece cannot support this spider as it grows. What I noticed is that the spiders enlarge their trapdoor while growing, but when the area becomes too tight or too small for them they leave the nest and start walking around the top of the enclosure, and if not catered for they usually build a new trapdoor at the top of the container close to the lid, or in a top corner. For some people that isn't really an issue as they can observe the spider, but this makes feeding much more challenging.
At one point I had a spider that left its spot and didn't return to it for over a week. I decided to experiment and ripped off the old, now-deserted trapdoor from the small cork piece, and placed it on a larger piece of bark. This can be done with a tiny drop of glue or a pin, but I found that the silk itself has some adhesive properties and if placed firmly on the cork it doesn't fall off. It seems T. seladonia have very strong affinity to their own silken doors, because the spiders always find the old trapdoor in their searches. This species is extremely shy so normally they want to be hidden. When the spider discovered the old trapdoor it immediately went under it. Hard to see in the following photo, but the spider is in there, and it just spun thin strands of silk to connect the old trapdoor to the new bark:
I can also tell this spider enlarged the trapdoor just a teensy bit by noticing new building materials from the lichen I glued on the bark.
As you can see, I do not drill any holes in the cork, and I use its curved side. I found that T. seladonia will adopt the curved side more readily, and it also makes it easier to feed them on that side of the bark.
The spider will keep enlarging the old trapdoor as it grows, and after some time it will be difficult to distinguish it from the entire cover. In this photo you can just barely see the outlines of the old trapdoor that I once attached to the bark, so I marked it for you to see.
The spider that lives under the above trapdoor is an adult female. I can't end this post without a little bit of color, so here she is.
