Web of Life

[dvg]

I've been feeding a feral female spider (some type of species which makes a funnel type web) over that last couple of months.

She has gotten larger from the flightless fruit flies i have been supplying her with each day.

Over the past few days i have noticed that a male has come knocking, maybe trying to court little Miss Sunshine.

Here is a pic of the female (on top) and her male suitor.

And here is another pic...i'm only showing it because i noticed there was an ant in the upper left corner.

For those that aren't fans of spiders, these seem to be quite shy and unassuming, unlike the aggressive new species of spider/tarantula that is killing people in India.

http://www.examiner.com/article/spi...ive-spiders-panics-indian-town-leaving-2-dead

dvg

 

[thez_yo]

OMG why did I click that link

I had a pet wolf-spider once (at least I think that's what it was..house-spider in Vermont). It shed its exoskeleton once and I nearly fainted from thinking I now had two spiders to keep track of . Your spiders seem similar to what I had.

 

[dvg]

OMG why did I click that link

I had a pet wolf-spider once (at least I think that's what it was..house-spider in Vermont). It shed its exoskeleton once and I nearly fainted from thinking I now had two spiders to keep track of . Your spiders seem similar to what I had.

Haha Thez...i think you are safe for now.

SD is a long ways from India.

dvg

 

[dvg]

The above spider shots were of inhabitants in my basement.

Here are a few shots of a spider that i have been feeding that lives right outside of our garage door.

This spider likes to come out and sun itself once the sun swings around in the late afternoon.

It has brown banded markings on its legs and a brown patch on its back that resembles a spearhead.

Today i fed it some D. melanogaster flightless fruit flies.

dvg

 

[scottychaos]

I have a cool spider story..
when I was a teenager, about 14 or 15, I discovered some type of "orb weaver" in my Mom's garden..
it was similar to this:

BIG spider!
I thought she was totally cool..my Mom was fighting the Japanese beetles on her roses,
so I thought I would try feeding the spider some beetles..
I tossed one into the web..the spider *immediately* ran down to it, stung it, and quickly wrapped it up..
then went back to the center of the web.."saving it for later" I thought..

So I tried another one! same thing..now there were two wrapped-up beetles in the web..
Third beetle..same thing..
ok, one more..fourth beetle..this time was different!

The spider ran down to it..seemed to consider it for a moment..
then, over the course of probably 15 minutes, as I watched, the spider very meticulously *cut the beetle out* of its web!
at one point, while the beetle was being freed, it was actually crawling on the back of the spider!
the spider cut the beetle loose, and let it fall to the ground..
She had enough food, she didn't need anymore..
that beetle was probably unaware how lucky it was that day..

Scot

 

[RL7836]

For those that aren't fans of spiders, these seem to be quite shy and unassuming....

I've never been a fan of spiders but have learned to appreciate them over the past 10 years or so. However, I tend to prefer species that I know aren't particularly harmful (jumping spiders, garden spiders, etc). The ones in your pic look too close to brown recluse for me...

 

[Nepenthesis]

I found a big brown spider that was about 1" around its body. It was pretty cool and remarkable how these creatures weave webs. I read that spider webs are to bugs as steel is to humans, or something similar. Possibly even a bit stronger, the spider webs. I also found a sizable black widow on a few different occasions, most recently a few weeks ago. Very beautiful markings. They all went to a good cause, if you know what I mean.

 

[Rocketcaver]

Scot, that is an interesting story. Around here we call those "bananna spiders". I have fed them practically my whole life and never observed that behaviour. I suppose I never fed them that much. I'll have to try it this year.

 

[dvg]

Scottychaos, that is a very interesting story...thanks for sharing that.

RL7836, i admit to not really knowing my spider species all too well, but i wouldn't be too pleased to find out that i had been inadvertantly breeding out and spreading brown recluse spiders in our house, and neither would my wife!

Last night, using the camera's flash, i was able to capture a couple of spiders on my tomato plant reacting well to an offering of D. hydei flightless fruit flies.

This orb weaver took the fly in the centre of its web, but probably because i was hovering overhead flashing pics, it quickly took it's prey and scurried over to the far edge of its web.

I was surprised at how quickly this spider was able to gnash its way through the fly's head as evidenced by the ever widening spacing of the fly's eyes, seemingly as fast and furious as any ravenous half-crazed zombie overdosed on bath salts.

Maybe macabre to us, but any debate over what twisted spin of the karmic wheel fated the spider with this incarnation is probably best left for humans to idly speculate over, because the spider efficiently goes about its business, without guilt, without hesitation and without remorse.



This next pic is interesting because it nicely highlights the front leg joints of this spider, eerily similar to some visage of a dark spectre's bony digit grimly beckoning the nearly departed to lift the veil and cross to the other side...

To end this session on a cheerier note, how about this ambitious little mighty mite of a spider quite willing and able take on and take down prey its own size.

I kinda feel obliged to applaud this little spider's effort and tenacity here.

dvg

 

[dvg]

The little mighty mite spider has grown some.

Despite some colorful markings,

i'm still not decided on if this little spider is creepy or a cutie...

Later on, embracing a hapless fruit fly.

dvg

 

[F R e N c H 3 z]

A couple orb weavers that caught my eye one day:

 

[limeslide]

Very nice! They look like M & M's lol

 

[F R e N c H 3 z]

Somehow I don't think they're chocolate filled

 

[dvg]

I've never been a fan of spiders but have learned to appreciate them over the past 10 years or so. However, I tend to prefer species that I know aren't particularly harmful (jumping spiders, garden spiders, etc). The ones in your pic look too close to brown recluse for me...

I had a closer look into the matter of brown recluse spiders and they are quite uncommon in our area.

These spiders are probably domestic house spiders/barn funnel spiders aka Tegenaria domestica, which are much more common around here.

Yesterday i noticed two male spiders in close proximity to the female and figured she must be releasing some spider sex pheromones.

This morning there was a shiny new egg sack just a couple of inches away from her funnel lair.

It seems she had abandoned her lair and was guarding the egg sack.

And the male spider was on the opposite side of the webbing...not quite sure what happened to the other male.

Ahhhhh....just can't wait to hear the pitter patter of those little spiderling's tiny feet racing across the basement floor, living life on the edge, weaving in and out of pots of carnivorous plants.

dvg

 

[dvg]

Little miss Sunshine seems to be very popular on the social spider web networks these days and has proven to be a pretty good layer - posting up these two baby bumps within the last 21 days.

Having read that females of this species can live up to seven years, all i gotta say to that is "You Go Girl!"


dvg

 

[maxima]

Great photos!

 

[dvg]

Great photos!

Thanks Maxima!

Here's an orb weaver doing its thing.

dvg

 

[dvg]

Saw this guy hanging around the garage yesterday...

...looking suspicious.

dvg

 

[maxima]

awesome thread, becoming my fave. I used to keep spiders as pets, got hundreds of babies from a few specimens. had to quit in the end because feeding them was such a horror - the buzzing of those poor flies :-( I can never forgive myself when I think about it.

but I'm really enjoying the thread, you have some very cool spiders over there.

 

[dvg]

Thanks Maxima, spiders are a fascinating subject.


This spider has set up shop on one of my over-summering outdooor Neps.

dvg