Hey, this is my intro into keeping Arachnids- pretty much just kept it for a little while to observe it and found it pretty interesting so I never let it go, then the snow came and I had a pet ^_~, moving onto some Tarantula slings when the weather warms up. Her name is Chloee, that sounds evil enough.
($40. digital camera for the pix, you definitely get what you pay for it seems good macro shots are almost impossible)
I guess I had some ideas in my head about how "spiders" do things and it seems like I was surprised a few times. I am as positive as I can be personally that this is actually a black widow, western? Meaning I could definitely be wrong.
Anyway I found her in a Tarantula borrow one day when I was fishing for some local Ts to take pictures of. She was about 1/3" and lived with a slightly smaller Widow for about two weeks. As far as I could tell in that time the smaller widow had been unsuccessful in getting a meal- I'd watch and things would always end up in the larger widows corner when they got stuck. One day I fed the larger widow then made sure a bug got caught on the smaller ones side, and they both bundled them up with a little webbing, then the larger moved over to the small one and they had an interesting little battle that I would compare to blind people flailing around with their walking sticks. The small one retreated and the large one took the food to its corner. The next morning the large one had 2 bundles in its corner and was feasting on the smaller widow- territorial I guess?
Another interesting event was when I placed a beetle about 4 times the size of the widow in the container (it was the only bug I"d found when I walked around my house), it tore through the webbing it got stuck in and ran around the bottom of the container for a while. Eventually the widow approached it from behind and reached out with some webbing and snagged one of its legs to some sticks I had in the container. I guess this was stronger webbing that it used to create what it walked around on because the beetle twisted and flailed around and eventually just ended up on its back- the widow came back and added a little more sticky stuff before quickly retreating and after a while managed to stick all 6 legs. I don't know exactly how many times she bit it but I know it was at least two, she'd move in, bite, then run off again. Day by day I'd check in on her and she was pretty much in static positions for about a week and a half, just moving to different places around the shell of the beetle she moved to the center of her web. She became QUITE obese. One that same note, I fed her a few things every day for a week once out of curiosity and she never stopped eating, and puffed out like a balloon- do spiders have the ability to know when they are "full"?
Some other things I found odd- she never remakes her web? I've moved her once or twice and cleaned out her container and she always seems to start with webbing that I can't really visibly see and only adds and adds to it over time, never taking any down. I've found 8-9 Widows prior to this one and they all were in corner areas of outside windows or door frames hiding in a pocket of web- the Widow I have just has a web that covers most of the containers size horizontally that also is about 2" deep, she always hangs off it somewhere and doesn't have a place she hides in or a webbed enclosure of any kind. On multiple occasions I have also seen her chase down food, the larger she gets the less she seems to rely on food getting stuck- I'd say that 80% of what I put in with her she actively hunts. She doesn't tackle it like a tarantula, but preps up webbing between her back 2 legs and runs around like a gymnist with her other legs lashing out trying to stick her prey to something.
I guess I just wanted to post about my first Arach and also see if anybody has had experience or knows about whether or not this is "normal" behavior- perhaps its due to her being in captivity? I've had her a little over 4 months and I think she's molted about 5 times, she's around 2 1/4-2.5" if your supposed to measure spiders from front left leg tip to back rear. I'm not sure exactly, she doesn't ever walk on purpose and when she does she seems awkward at it. Long legs, most noticeable change after every molt. Also, she used to have so small red dots on her backside, they seem to have been lost during one of her molts.
($40. digital camera for the pix, you definitely get what you pay for it seems good macro shots are almost impossible)
I guess I had some ideas in my head about how "spiders" do things and it seems like I was surprised a few times. I am as positive as I can be personally that this is actually a black widow, western? Meaning I could definitely be wrong.
Anyway I found her in a Tarantula borrow one day when I was fishing for some local Ts to take pictures of. She was about 1/3" and lived with a slightly smaller Widow for about two weeks. As far as I could tell in that time the smaller widow had been unsuccessful in getting a meal- I'd watch and things would always end up in the larger widows corner when they got stuck. One day I fed the larger widow then made sure a bug got caught on the smaller ones side, and they both bundled them up with a little webbing, then the larger moved over to the small one and they had an interesting little battle that I would compare to blind people flailing around with their walking sticks. The small one retreated and the large one took the food to its corner. The next morning the large one had 2 bundles in its corner and was feasting on the smaller widow- territorial I guess?
Another interesting event was when I placed a beetle about 4 times the size of the widow in the container (it was the only bug I"d found when I walked around my house), it tore through the webbing it got stuck in and ran around the bottom of the container for a while. Eventually the widow approached it from behind and reached out with some webbing and snagged one of its legs to some sticks I had in the container. I guess this was stronger webbing that it used to create what it walked around on because the beetle twisted and flailed around and eventually just ended up on its back- the widow came back and added a little more sticky stuff before quickly retreating and after a while managed to stick all 6 legs. I don't know exactly how many times she bit it but I know it was at least two, she'd move in, bite, then run off again. Day by day I'd check in on her and she was pretty much in static positions for about a week and a half, just moving to different places around the shell of the beetle she moved to the center of her web. She became QUITE obese. One that same note, I fed her a few things every day for a week once out of curiosity and she never stopped eating, and puffed out like a balloon- do spiders have the ability to know when they are "full"?
Some other things I found odd- she never remakes her web? I've moved her once or twice and cleaned out her container and she always seems to start with webbing that I can't really visibly see and only adds and adds to it over time, never taking any down. I've found 8-9 Widows prior to this one and they all were in corner areas of outside windows or door frames hiding in a pocket of web- the Widow I have just has a web that covers most of the containers size horizontally that also is about 2" deep, she always hangs off it somewhere and doesn't have a place she hides in or a webbed enclosure of any kind. On multiple occasions I have also seen her chase down food, the larger she gets the less she seems to rely on food getting stuck- I'd say that 80% of what I put in with her she actively hunts. She doesn't tackle it like a tarantula, but preps up webbing between her back 2 legs and runs around like a gymnist with her other legs lashing out trying to stick her prey to something.
I guess I just wanted to post about my first Arach and also see if anybody has had experience or knows about whether or not this is "normal" behavior- perhaps its due to her being in captivity? I've had her a little over 4 months and I think she's molted about 5 times, she's around 2 1/4-2.5" if your supposed to measure spiders from front left leg tip to back rear. I'm not sure exactly, she doesn't ever walk on purpose and when she does she seems awkward at it. Long legs, most noticeable change after every molt. Also, she used to have so small red dots on her backside, they seem to have been lost during one of her molts.
