Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

Meet Skele-Ted. Skele-Ted is a pale ladybird spider, Stegodyphus dufouri . These spiders are related to the Black velvet spider that I would really like to add to my collection. They are an arboreal species that originates from the continent of Africa, so like warm dry enclosures with plenty of height. Unfortunately, when Skele-Ted arrived, it was very obvious that he was already a mature male due to the length of his first pair of front legs. Male individuals of this species (and indeed many others) have extra long front legs to help them to hold the females' fangs at bay as they attempt matine. This was a little disappointing as a mature male is likely to have a shorter life span than a female, but he is still an impressive specimen regardless. I named him Skele-Ted due to his cute little face. It made me think of a sad teddy bear, wearing a skull - A little bit like the Pokemon Cubone. I prefer to think that it's the skull of his enemy rather than his mother though! H...

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...