Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

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.

And I've done it again... I keep saying I've got enough critters, but then I put in another order - I just can't help myself! A lot of it is because of my "wishlist", which I have shared several times on this blog. As a regular customer of The Spider Shop , I am signed up to their newsletter so that I can see what they have coming in, when they get it. Currently I am most interested in the T. seladonia Brazilian jewel dwarf tarantula - an absolutely gorgeous arboreal trapdoor tarantula with a pink and blue sheen to it's abdomen, but which costs about £90 for a 0.5cm spiderling, and can often fail to thrive in captivity if it fails to build a trapdoor. As such, it's a risky purchase that I talk myself out of every time they come in stock, and they are never in stock for very long. This week, however, a spider came along which I was very interested in - Pamphobeteus sp. machalla . A terrestrial tarantula from South America, these spiders are orange wi...

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.

So this is the last livestock purchase that I will be making for a while. I know I have said that before, but I have now reached my physical limit of what I can house and care for. In my room, I currently have: - 11 tarantula enclosures - four arboreal tubes, four sling boxes, and three 1.3 litre braplast tubs. As well as these I have: - two jumping spiders in medium acrylic arboreal tanks, - one mantis in a medium arboreal tank, - one mantis in a small deli cup, - one scorpion in a large faunarium, - a mealworm farm in an XL faunarium, - dubia roaches in a medium faunarium, and - one Sunny stick insect in a medium mesh terrarium. I also keep greenbottles, brown crickets, and fruit flies in their respective containers. My order today adds two Spotted fire millipedes ( Centrolobus splendidus ), a giant dead leaf mantis ( Deroplatys desiccata ), and a second mystery box! Centrolobus splendidus Yeah, I have no reason for ordering these other than I wanted them. I used to keep...