Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

Incy Wincy is a very shy spider - since going into his larger enclosure I pretty much never see him. He spends the majority of his time hiding under his bark hide, and when he is out and about he will scurry away as soon as he sees any movement. He is the complete opposite personality type to Big Spood. I do try to get photographs - these are usually blurry photos of a spider with the lights off so that I don't disturb him, and I often suspect that there are clearer photos of the Loch Ness moster than there are of my largest spider. But I still try: He's made quite an impressive canyon in his enclosure, having dug right down to the bottom of the plastic. I am sure that he's trying to make a break for freedom, as he likes to pile the excess dirt up at the sides, almost like a step ladder out of his enclosure... Big Spood does the same thing, actually, so maybe they're conspiring to escape...? I've managed to get some photos of him while he's chilling in hi...

I haven't had much to report on Ladybug for a little while. Ladybug is a very shy spider who spends most of his time hiding in his nest, only coming out when he's wanting to hunt. He's not overly sociable and he definitely doesn't like to be handled, which I have to respect. Since I got him I've been umming and ahhing about what gender he is - His colouration seemed to indicate that he was a female, as males are supposed to be scarlet red. However, after his most recent molt he seems to be developing the chonky front legs and the "boxing glove" pedipalps of a male. He is still clearly a sub-adult, so maybe his colouration will change with his next molt, but I definitely believe him to be a male now. You can clearly see that his front legs have become chonkier than his other six (all the better to dance the mamba with), and the tips of his pedipalps are becoming more bulbous. He may only have one molt left before he's mature and unfortunately I don...

I learned something interesting tonight. I was out pretty late for a concert in London, so by the time I got home and turned on the front room light, it had already been dark for several hours. When I get in, the first thing I like to do is to go over to the Critter Corner and check on the critters. When I did, I found Catchy in her tank, looking at me like this: As you can see, her eyes have completely changed colour. Usually her eyes are the same vibrant green as the rest of her body (see below) but tonight, they were a tanned brown colour. Initially, I thought something was wrong - but wrong in the sense of "maybe she's preparing to molt" rather than "oh no, there's something wrong with her eyes". So I found myself doing a little bit of late night drunken research into Mantis vision. One of the first things I discovered was that mantises have five eyes, rather than two. On the image below, (which I shamelessly stole from the internet and now I can...

Ziggy is on the prowl again. Whenever one of my spiders is out and about, I tend to assume it's hungry, because as a rule they tend to hide away where I can't see them. They emerge to hunt, so that is when I usually feed them. It was a text book feeding for Ziggy. He was wandering around, so I dropped a small locust in. He grabbed it and immediately dragged it into his web to eat it. Perfect - one well fed spiderling. Hopefully he hangs around for many more feedings, because I can't wait for this one to be grown up. One thing that interested me while he was feeding though, was just how well camouflaged he is when he's sitting against that bark. Some times I will be looking into the tank for ages before I finally catch a glimpse of a leg. It's hard to get a clear photograph through misty perspex - and one day he will have a shiny glass enclosure. But for now I have done my best.

Time for another stab at idnetifying a wild mystery spider! My partner has a car with a glass roof, and one day when we were parked in the countryside, this little guy wandered across it. This was the only photo I was able to get. Identifying this guy was a bit of a stab in the dark. For starters, he was outside of the car whilst I was in it, and beyond that - I only had the underside of him to go on. I am reasonably sure he is a male based on the large "blobs" at the end of his pedipalps. They would look almost like boxing gloves from above. Still, I do think I've got it - based on his colour, the arrangement of his legs, and his size (approximately 1cm), I believe this guy to be a green huntsman spider, Micrommata virescens. Males of this species range from 7 to 10 mm long, and while the females are entirely green, the males have the vibrant red and yellow striped abdomens. As you can see from the photo I took, there is a reddish hue shining through from above the...

Every so often I feel the need to check in on Diablo. Mostly, he keeps himself to himself. If he's not hiding out under his log, then he's hiding out in the massive tunnel complex that he's dug for himself under the substrate. He is a nocturnal animal, and now that he's being kept in the living room instead of my bedroom, I literally am getting no signs of activity from one week to the next. I don't even know for sure that he's eating. I put food in, and it appears to disappear, but I never actually see him eat or hear any scuffles. I've seen youtube videos of scorpion feedings where the scorpions can't wait for food - they pounce almost as soon as it's put into the enclosure. Not Diablo. I've seen crickets sit on his head before now and he's not reacted.... Maybe he's too well fed for a decent feed response? I'm not sure. Shortly after these photos were taken I threw two small locusts in and - as expected - he ignored them....

It's not often Incy Wincy comes out, so when he did tonight, I snapped a very quick picture of him. It's a bit dark and more than a little fuzzy, but here he is:

Well, that is clear as day! I was casually doing my spood spritz - opening each cage, checking the spoods were alive, taking note of their molt state, etc, when Big Spood too a special dislike to my interference... In not so many words, she told me to Fuck off! Obviously, I closed the lid and left her alone - this is a spood who does not want company right now.

I guess it's the season for wandering spoods, because I found this one in my bath today! I belieave it's Steatoda nobilis - commonly known as the False Widow spider: I am not overly fond of these spiders - I have heard too many cases of them biting my friends and family. My partner had an exceptionally nasty bite on his arm recently, which he got while cleaning his garage. And yes, I know that it's not an especially bad bite - akin to a wasp sring, apparently - but I don't even like to be bitten by a mosquito! These spiders have venom potent enough to allow them to feed on pipistrelle bats, so when I pulled this lady out of my bathtub (I am assuming she is female as I didn't notice the swollen pedipalps that a male would have) I made sure to not use any fingers. She was gently scooped into a cardboard tube and dropped out of the window. As females can live up to five years, I imagine I may see her again - whether I am aware of it or not.