- Joined
- Nov 30, 2004
- Messages
- 133
Is anyone familiar with Filistata ? Anyways, they are probably some of my favorite local true spiders. For anyone that lives in the south, you will know what I'm talking about. They are those big dark brown/black spiders that build the funnel-type retreats in and around old abandoned buildings. When they're seen up close, they look as though they are covered in crushed velvet. They range from light to dark brown to almost black and have these creepy (but pretty cool) looking eyes that shine. They're very docile spiders, and their fangs are so tiny that I'm not sure that they would even bite. OK, correction, I actually HAVE been bitten. It was so insignificant that I'm wasting time writing about it, LOL. I felt a very small pinch...that was it. Adult males are something else, if you didn't know any better you'd think you were looking at a very large recluse. They are a light straw to brown color, are VERY leggy, and even have a violin-shaped area on their c'thorax. They have EXTREMELY long pedipalps as adult males. I've experimented with keeping these animals over the years and have realized a few things...
1. Spiderlings are very easy to care for if you supply a funnel type retreat they can spin their webs in (a small piece of tightly rolled up toilet paper roll), whereas wild-caught adults are not so easy. They will spin random silk around a cage, but they are hesitant to build any type of retreat and obviously they will not accept food at that time.
2. When they DO build a retreat, they'll eat anything and everything. They must be pretty damn strong, because I've seen a sub-adult catch a fully grown cockroach in her web before and she bit onto a leg, held on, and drug it into her lair. That's what they do with prey, they just bite onto a leg or something and drag it back into their hide.
3. They're somewhat fast and flighty but are very docile otherwise. Their fangs are very tiny, especially for being such a big spider (I have had females up to 4" legspan).
4. Easy to breed. Male will sometimes even hang around the web for a while.
5. Fun to watch because if you so much as run a pencil across their 'trip wires' they run out and will sometimes attack the object
If you guys are interested, I may get back into collecting/breeding them and may offer them for sale for people that don't have them in their area. They'll be inexpensive as they are fairly common.
1. Spiderlings are very easy to care for if you supply a funnel type retreat they can spin their webs in (a small piece of tightly rolled up toilet paper roll), whereas wild-caught adults are not so easy. They will spin random silk around a cage, but they are hesitant to build any type of retreat and obviously they will not accept food at that time.
2. When they DO build a retreat, they'll eat anything and everything. They must be pretty damn strong, because I've seen a sub-adult catch a fully grown cockroach in her web before and she bit onto a leg, held on, and drug it into her lair. That's what they do with prey, they just bite onto a leg or something and drag it back into their hide.
3. They're somewhat fast and flighty but are very docile otherwise. Their fangs are very tiny, especially for being such a big spider (I have had females up to 4" legspan).
4. Easy to breed. Male will sometimes even hang around the web for a while.
5. Fun to watch because if you so much as run a pencil across their 'trip wires' they run out and will sometimes attack the object
If you guys are interested, I may get back into collecting/breeding them and may offer them for sale for people that don't have them in their area. They'll be inexpensive as they are fairly common.
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