Tomorrow's the day...that my disabled spider turns 1 month old.

[petmantis]

When I brought my Byblis liniflora home on November the 28th, I noticed a smal,l white insect-like body on the soil in the glass terrarium. With, one long, thin leg. My immediate reaction: 'Ew, at least it won't be there for long...'

A couple hours later, I came back to check on the Byblis, and to my horrible surprise the leg was moving...in all directions until it caught onto something, then contracted and pulled up the little rice-like body and did that again...

Obviously, the 'one legged spider' had no way of getting food (unless it can steal Byblis prey, which isn't much) , it was probably in a lot of pain from having the rest of its 7 legs ripped off by something, so it would be dead in a couple of hours. Turned out the creepy little critter somehow managed to survive in there, and tomorrow (the 28th) would be the day it's spent at least a month in that tiny terrarium.

I can't get it out or 'put it out of its misery' because the Byblis plant is in the way, and I don't want to damage it...

How in the world has it managed to survive and move around with one leg, for a month?! What do I do? Lol. do I like...leave it in there to die by itself, or will it continue to live there?

It's really creepy. i can try to get pics of it, if wanted.

Happy holidays! :puke2:

[Devon]

cool! well, kinda... I feel bad.. congrats!? ??? I wanna see pics!

[seedjar]

Weird... kind of gruesome. Spiders can go a long time without a meal, though. As far as I understand, the males of most species actually do little to no eating during their lifetime; the females hunt so that they can lay eggs, but spiders hatch with almost all the nourishment they need to grow to adulthood.
Um... good luck with it?
~Joe

[petmantis]

Um... good luck with it?

...Lol. I asked myself ''How does that even happen?'' and here are a few possible answers:

-it was born with only a leg
-it fell in the jar, and out of frustration bit off all its legs
-the previous Byblis owner tried to feed it to his byblis, so he mutilated it so it couldn't escape...

the third one makes more sense to me

[ieat100s]

"Gross! Cool! Weird! Unlikely" are all discriptions of that. Good luck.... I think.

[Lil Stinkpot]

If it moults soon-ish, it has a chance.

[amphirion]

^^that's what i was going to say, Katie. arthropods have this amazing ability to regenerate lost limbs--however, this can only occur during a molt. i've seen it happen with others from crayfish to stick insects.

[petmantis]

How can it molt, if it hasn't eaten? To molt, the insect usually has to grow out of its old exoskeleton. From what I know, anyway... I could be mistaken :)

[BuddhistAdam]

hes right...the only reason they molt if because the older exoskeleton must be shed to allow the arthropod to get bigger. only way to get bigger is to eat... i suppose it depends on what kind of spider it is too... pictures would be helpful. It might be a jumping spider in which case it may or may not shed at all because it might already be fully grown. Pictures would be helpful.
If you dont want to kill it get melonagaster flies (tiny flightless fruit flies) and by chance it could nab one. Plus youll be feeding your plant as they prefer to climb.

[Lil Stinkpot]

Not the only reason. They can molt to make "emergency repairs". I had a crayfish do that, after spending an hour on the road stuck to the bottom of my boat. As soon as he got back in the water, he molted, right then and there. The spider might actually make a smaller new skin, to make up for losses.

Yes, put some fruit flies in there, he/she probably would nab one, if it were hungry.