Meet the Spoods: part 3

So, now that my new spoods have had a little time to settle in, it is time to introduce them. Obviously, I have already mentioned Fred, the regal jumping spider, but this post is for the Spoods. As with the original three Spoods, I do not know the sexes of these animals, but the names are what they are.

First up is Joy. Joy was named by my daughter. She is a Salmon pink birdeater from Brazil, or Lasiodora parahybana. She may be small now - approximately 2cm DLS (diagonal leg span) - but at her full size she could be up to 11 inches. My daughter named this spider, so I am hoping that Joy does in fact turn out to be a female - I don't want to be the one to explain to her that Joy is a boy spider with a girls name. At this stage she reminds me very much of how Lolth looked prior to her first molt. But this makes sense, as when they are both adults they will have very similar colours and markings, even if their sizes are different.

Salmon Pink birdeater adult:

Catchy Camouflage. Not technically a spood, I know. But Catchy (named by my daughter again) is an honorary Spood at this point. Catchy is a giant asian praying mantis, or Hierodula patellifera. He is quite small at the moment and hard to get a good photograph of, but my daughter enjoys watching him snatch his prey. He has quite a voracious appetite, so I will have to be careful not to overfeed this one.

It is hard to see this spider in amongst it's substrate. This is "Asmodeus the slightly less evil". He is an arboreal Old World spider with a medically significant bite. I am rather fearful of him, and have been wondering whether or not I may have made a mistake. He is a Togo Starburst spider, or Heteroscodra maculata. If you look at the photo of what he will look like as an adult, he has a very pretty fractal pattern on his abdomen. So far he has just buried himself in the substrate of his enclosure, so as long as he stays chilled we shouldn't have any issues... I absolutely love the fluffy little socks/legwarmers that he has.

This is a Togo Starburst adult:

This is Loki. He is the smallest spider in my collection, coming in at a whopping 0.5cm long. I am actually terrified of losing him. A dwarf tarantula species, Loki is a Columbia variant of the "Pumpkin Patch" tarantula, Hapalopus formosus. He won't get any bigger then 10cm, but he will hopefully get the distinctive orange colour of the species. This is a feisty spider with a voracious appetite - most of my other tarantulas are happy to scavenge for dead mealworms, while Loki prefers to hunt live fruit flies. He was so eager to take down the fly yesterday that he attacked the tweezers instead. I am quite fond of this little Spood.

Perhaps Asmodeus' moniker makes more sense now. This is "Lucifer the Evil". When I ordered Lucifer, I was under the impression that, while he does bite, he was not a dangerous spider and all that would occur was a bit of pain. Now that he is here and I have done a little more reading, I have learned that of all my spiders, his bite is the most painful. I have read accounts of people being in and out of hospital for pain, spasms, cramps, etc, so I am actually scared of this little guy. I will keep him for now, but if there is any point at which I feel I can't look after him, I may have to put him up for adoption. This is the downside of looking at a spider and thinkg "ooooh, pretty". Lucifer is a feather leg baboon spider, or Stromatopelma calceatum. I was drawn to him because of his interesting colour and pretty fluffy legs. I especially like the little dark splodges on his toes. But....time will tell on this one.

Lucifer as an adult:

Finally, we have Pratt. Pratt was also named by my daughter, but given that when he is an adult he will look like he stuck his tongue in a live toaster, I feel that the name is appropriate. This little guy is only about 1cm across, and is the original reason I placed the spider order in the first place. He is a curly hair tarantula, or Tlitocatl albopilosus. I haven't seen much of him as the very first thing he did was disappear down a hole in his substrate, but these spiders in general are supposed to be very calm, very docile individuals. I hope this is the case for Pratt.