Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

I had a visitor! My first wild UK jumping Spood! I was finally finsihing off setting up my crafting room/wman's cave/Spoodoir, when I happened to look up and see this tiny little black speck making its way across the door frame. From the way it was moving it was clear that whatever it was, it was definitely a jumping spider, so I grabbed a little container to get a closer look. As you can see from the photos, she was absolutely tiny! About 4mm long, front to back. I was hoping to identify her species, but I couldn't see clearly enough to tell any distinguishing features. So I gave her a fruit fly to make sure she was well fed, and then I put her in a warm dark place (next to my other spoods) in preparation for bringing her to work with me. Before this, I was under the impression that we only had one species of jumping spider in the UK - The zebra jumper. I knew that this little critter was not a zebra jumper - a zebra jumper has black and white stripes on its body, as yo...

I finally got a video of the Happy Dance!! I had thrown a locust into the enclosure, and I hung around for a little while to see if she would do it (as I usually do) but there seemed to be no sign and I had all but given up. I went to feed another spood, and when I came back, she was doing this: This dance is often seen in Big Spoods species, although a lot of other species do it too. They are essentially spinning in circles, laying a web - a feeding mat - underneath them as they do so. I've read a number of theories as to why they do the "happy dance" when they feed, but there is no definitive answer. Some of the most popular theories include: Threat detection Liquidising and slurping a critter takes a long time, and during that time, they are vulnerable if sitting out in the open. By laying a web underneath themselves they are better able to detect approaching predators. Vibrations from predator movement are more easily transmitted through the web silk, in the sam...

As usual, Big Spood is happy to be out and about. She clearly enjoys the attention she gets (and why not - she's definitely the largest of the Spoods, and big is beautiful after all!) After spritzing her this evening, I quite liked the way the water was beading on her fur, so I took these photos. I also like the way her chelicerae look so velvety... I kind of wish I could touch them to see if they feel as velvety as they look, but...I don't think she would appreciate that. She definitely has a "look but don't touch" kind of a vibe, as as soon as I open the lid to her enclosure she is right there to chase me away...

It's moving day! The spoods are finally making the big trek downstairs! There is still a lot to do - I am currently using desk lamps to light the critters from above - eventually I want to make the switch to LED light strips, which I would fix along the underneath of the shelves to light them from above in all directions. Additionally, I had considered getting larger heat mats which I would have fixed to the back walls to radiate heat outwwards. Now I'm contemplating getting a space heater, just to heat that little corner. It's not an issue at this time of year as this room is warm enough for them, but in the Winter they will definitely need some additional heating to keep them comfortable. What I do have so far are some little decorations. Such as this sign, which I found for about £3 on Temu: Over time, I am sure that the spiders will start to migrate, filling up the rest of the shelves as they get larger enclosures, or as I add to my collection. I wouldn't mind...

The elusive Ziggy is out and about! Obviously that means he is hungry and looking for food, so I threw a small cricket into his enclosure, but not before I snapped a photo. I am pretty sure that he has molted again - He has got a series of tunnels under the substrate, so I don't actually see him out and about very often. Nor do I know when he's in premolt, molting, or molted! This is why I gave up on my Spood-sheet. I wasn't getting the information to properly update it! He definitely looks like he's just about doubled in size now, compared to when I first got him, and his legs are starting to look chinkier, and get that nice feathered look that old world T's tend to get - they look like they're wearing little leg warmers. His adult markings are starting to develop - you can clearly see the dark markings on his abdomen and the cream stripe down the middle, althouth he's not developing the blue and yellow that I'm so excited to see. That said, the ...

Just a quickie post today - as I was leaving for work this morning I happened to notice that Catchy was in the process of molting, so I snapped a picture. I can't help but feel like she won't fit in her enclosure for much longer, so maybe I should be on the look out for a larger arboreal tank. ...Yes, that is a half eaten mealworm in her enclosure, as I fed her yesterday and I guess she wasn't really that hungry. (Not a surprise if she was prepping for a molt!)

As discussed in a recent previous post, due to the overcrowded nature of Spood-tropolis, sometimes accidents happen. Today, I accidentally knocked over Asmodeus' Arboreal keeper. I was reaching over to grab a different enclosure for a misting, and my sleeve just caught the top of his tub, and over he went. He is OK. Despite one of the following photos looking like he has a missing limb, I can assure you that it is only the angle that he's sitting at - he does in fact have all limbs intact. But now I have a new problem. I now can't set the enclosure upright again without piling all of that substrate on the top of his head, potentially squishing him. And obviously, that's not an option. So from now on, Asmodeus's enclosure will be lying on its side, until such a time as his replacement arrives and I rehouse him. What I have been able to determine from this accident is that yes, Asmodeus is still alive, but he doesn't appear to be growing very fast. His abd...

Incy has gifted me with a molt! He is strutting his stuff in his brand new clothes - his colouring is getting much darker now, with long peachy hairs, and his adult markings starting to show through. This is his second molt with me, and he is growing fast. Which isn't really a surprise as an adult of his species, Lasiodora parahybana can reach up to 11 inches across. As we have a nice fresh molt, and at a decent size, I thought I might try to sex Incy based on what I learned when sexing Big Spood . When his molt came out of the enclosure, it was completely shrivelled up where his abdomen would have been, so the first thing I had to do was to drop a little bit of water over the shrivelled skin, and gently tease it apart with some delicate tweezers. This left me with this trypophobic nightmare: Fun fact - the odd leaf shaped part in the middle of the cephalothorax is Incy's "sucking stomach". This is a muscular stomach which helps him to suck up his liquid food a...

Following Evander's untimely passing, I found myself with a spare arboreal enclosure. Rather than buy a new critter to fill it, I decided to move Lucifer the Evil - Satan's Featherleg - into it to give him a little bit more space. Previously, he was in a small "arboreal keeper" from The Spider Shop. While these are perfectly adequate enclosures, they are not my favourite as I don't like having to spritz the enclosure from the tiny hole in the top. I don't usually see Lucifer much. He buried himself in his substrate pretty much as soon as I put him into the Arboreal keeper, and I think I've only seen him twice since then, maybe only once. So imagine how happy I was when the day after I had moved him into the new enclosure, I found him out and about, stretching his legs. As you can see, while he is looking quite well fed (this can be seen by the size of his abdomen - small and shrivelled mean he is hungry, round and plump means well fed) he hasn't g...