Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

Unfortunately, due to the delayed nature of the posting on this blog, the things that I write about in the Summer don't get published until Winter, or vice versa. That's the limitation of a prolific poster writing up a buffer, to be released at regular intervals. It doesn't usually pose a problem, but as I write this post in the middle of Autumn - firstly, it is not going to hit the blog until next year. Secondly, due to the nature of the content here, it may interrupt continuity - I am writing to remember the charming little critters that I lost over this summer. Some of the deaths were expected, there had been plenty of warning. Other deaths were...surprising. But while I mention them here, due to the pre written nature of the content to come, there may be posts further down the line where these names and faces crop up again, almost as though I hadn't lost them. I've been umming and ahhing over the best time to place this post, and to be honest - there's...

No blurb, no chat. Just a happy Spood, sitting on his walnut, and my appalling attempt at macro photography. I'll be back next week with something a bit more substantial.

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...

This is the last of the feeding posts, as I have fed all of the critters who would take food. The jumpers are a little awkward to feed at the moment. They are a lot fussier with food than my others, who will eat anything so long as it's sized appropriately. The jumpers....well, they only really like green bottles. Unfortunately, I don't have any green bottles in stock at the moment. I have ordered some, but they take several days to arrive and then another week or so to emerge from their pupal stage. With me being about to head off for a few days, it's just not going to happen. But spiders still have to eat, and the regals are currently looking pretty hungry! With the flies I tend to just drop the pupae into the enclosure, then it hatches when it hatches and the spoods can hunt properly. As I don't have flies, I have to work with what I have, and what I have is meal worms. I can't release mealworms into the enclosures becuase the spiders like to be high up -...

This is Ladybug. Ladybug is my third jumping spider, though she is not a Regal jumper like Fred and Wilma are. She is a Widow jumping spider, or Phidippus ardens . I believe this spider is a she, as the males tend to be a vibrant red (hence her name) while she is more of a burned orange on her abdomen. I don't have a particularly imaginative enclosure for her right now - I haven't decided what "theme" to decorate it with. But right now she has been moved into a spare acrylic arboreal enclose I had lying around, has been fed and watered, and has not so helpfully made her hammock and attached it to the front door. Should I ever open her enclosure, I will destroy her house... Fortunately this enclosure has a second feeding hatch, so it's not so critical.... yet.