How can you tell if a spider is pregnant? is that the right terminology? lol.

Found a spider int he sink....likely another wolf. So I have 3 now. I thought for sure it had gotten out of the critter tank thing I have. But the one that was in there is still in there...and behaving rather oddly. I destroyed all its webbing but what is in the Cocohut. It wasnt intentional but part of the taking a peek inside process. I will assume she and say she was touching the bottom of her abdomen.....where her "spinnerets" (proper termonilogy?) are...to the cieling of the wall over and over again slowly rotating counterclockwise making a small bit of ....I guess padding with her silk. Her abdomen seems HUGE in comparison with the rest of her body. The small cricket was clearly not interesting to her at all. Its literally an inch from here and she seems to care less.

So I just looked again....this is totally an eggsac. Im excited! My wife.....eh not so much....=p.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... NY0009.jpg

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... 0010-1.jpg

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... 0011-1.jpg

Now my other concern....if I am correct....is this is the tank she occupies currently..

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... 0012-1.jpg

IF she is creating a sack AND they ..."hatch"?.....they are gonna get out arent they?

Wolf spiders carry their young on their back for a while after they emerge from the sac. I'm not sure if this common to all wolfs or how long they carry them. Once the young disperse, they will escape from this enclosure. You might consider moving the enclosure outside once you see them on her back and letting them disperse and fend for themselves.

That looks like a sac to me. I don't know what species that is, but when they do hatch, I don't see anything to keep the spiderlings in. You could try to cover the top of the lower half of the enclosure with nylon and put the lid back on. The nylon should keep them in the enclosure, but it'll be a pain for you to feed.

To my knowledge there's no technical term. I like to say a female spider on the verge of laying a sac is "with eggs" because she most certainly is , but she is not "gravid". Surprised? Almost everyone in the hobby likes to use the word "gravid", but technically that's a blooper because it's a synonym for "pregnant". Spiders don't become "pregnant".

The term "pregnant" applies for creatures bearing young in a uterus (like mammals), where the young develop over a gestation period.

The distinction being......Spiders don't bear live young. Some arachnids, like scorpions do. Spiders, instead develop eggs internally and (fertilized or not) deposit them into an external sac of silk.

From latin, gravidus, meaning laden, filled, full, swollen (ref: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/mor ... &prior=qui)

So in this case would it not be an acceptable transfer to the world of invertebrate husbandry? Given that when a MF tarantula is about to lay a sac, she is quite laden, filled, full and definitely swollen.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines gravid as:
1. Pregnant
2. Full of ripe eggs or distended by such fullness

Seems like it would apply to spiders.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... 0013-1.jpg

Is it common for them to cover the eggsac? I assume it would be done to make it less visible to potential predators? I will plan on making sure I put the entire enclosure outside if they hatch. Does anyone know how long they take to hatch?

So what is a "ripe" egg? Another bad choice of words if you ask me......

Hard to tell from the photo if that's a lycosid, or type of wolf spider. If it is, they carry the eggsac around (attached with silk to the tip of the abdomen) until the spiderlings emerge. They crawl onto the mother's back and ride for awhile until they can fend for themselves. This whole process can take several weeks.

It's really a lot of fun to observe.

I dont know that this photo will bring it closer to Lycosid.....but here is the best I could do....she was a bit jumpy...

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... NY0023.jpg

My mistake on the sac. I believe I see a molt in there? If so, she should be divested of sperm, but I could be wrong, I'm not up on my true spider reproduction strategies.

Where do you think the molt is? The sac is under her in that picture. She attached some debris to it for some reason.....like she is hiding it or something.

You know this is funny, on one monitor, I see one thing, on another, something completely different. Now that I'm on my work monitor, which is just a few hundred notches better than my home monitor, I can see the sac, with camouflage. I think it's best if I avoid true spiders from now on.

As opposed to infertile ones? Not my choice of words, but it does get the message across.

As for the origin of the word, as someone above indicated, it comes from the Latin word gravidus, which in turn comes from gravis, which means "heavy". Gravidus carries with it the sense of "heavy with child", heavy with eggs, etc. It does not inherently indicate anything about a placental relationship. Obviously when a human is gravidus there is a placenal relationship, but there's no etymological reason to assume that "heavy" must henceforth imply placental or be restricted to placental animals.

Perhaps there are no placental implications, but again I'm only talking about informal use of the English word on the Internet and in the hobby. I like the Latin word "gravis" better, especially if it means "heavy".

I kind of like "gravid" for use with scorpions, but, who knows, I could be wrong about that. Scorpions bear live young, but do scorps get "pregnant"? :-)

For the spider hobby, "Gravid" is an artifact of Internet discussions which appeared on the message boards ten or more years ago. As stated, the word itself 100% gets the message across. I just prefer to avoid the term. It's my own opinion, but in doing lots editing and review of spider material I discovered I'm not alone in my line of thinking. Authors don't use it, either.

It's a curiosity of sorts. Authors of arachnid books (both hobby and scientific/college texts) have avoided using the term "gravid". They say "female developing eggs", "egg-laden", etc., but never "gravid".

For reading examples, skim through Schultz, Marshall, Hancock, Punzo, Baxter, Breene, Preston-Matham, and many others in your book collections. I can't find the word "gravid" in any of them......it may be coincidental or just trendy.

Just to clarify, I had no intention of proving anybody wrong by mentioning that earlier. I just think it's a logical jump in this particular case, and one that isn't necessarily damaging the English language as much as I've seen done with other commonly tossed around phrases.

We're just enjoying the talk. No damage to report. I think the English language will survive just about anything we say here, haha.

As Rhys indicates, we're just enjoying debating the point. Friendly mental exercise.

From my many years of experience with both reptiles and fish, I can confidentally say that "gravid" is the standard term for any of those animals that are laden with young or eggs. Not sure why spiders would be treated differently, and haven't checked yet to see if arachnologists really feel that word should be used or avoided for spiders. Gravis would not in my mind be a good substitute, since it literally just means "heavy", definitely not limited to egg-carrying. A rock could be gravis, but not gravidus. It's the etymological source of the word gravidus, which does imply carrying young or eggs - and gravid is simply the modern English version of gravidus. If the Latin word is correct, then the equivalent English word should suffice.

In any field of study, conventions develop that may not be strictly logical. Maybe spider people really have chosen not to use the word "gravid". But I'd like to see something a little more supportive than not finding it in several books. "Female developing eggs" might not be the same as "gravid female", if the eggs haven't been fertilized yet. (However, "gravid" in fish includes females with unfertilized eggs.) Is the word actually avoided? Maybe someone who does so could offer their reasons?

Bill, my sentiments, too. I spent a casual hour searching through my bookshelves..... I really think the word has been avoided in the literature, while it's been embraced in the hobby only for the past decade or so. I, too, would like to know more from authors......anyone with experience beyond my own searching.

Just chatting here I learned something about Latin and word origins, so it's all great. Thanks as usual for patience, because I always tend to bring up these little details out of the blue. Anyone who doesn't know me well enough starts to wonder what's up with that???

I have another example of disturbing terminologies....but to keep people sane I'll start another thread!

For those interested, it appears that ...we will assume wolf spiders here in all cases, the first wolf spider I collected from work appears to have been.........with children. A day or 2 ago my wife noticed a LITTLE TINY spot on the window. ......spider. I came out tonight to get something and noticed both females on their webs which they never do. They must prefer the darkness =). At any rate. The first female was "with children" There are baby spiders all over the place lol. Its currently 34 degrees here and due to lack of knowledge, putting them outside seems like a hopeless and cold death. The high will be 67 tomorrow so I intend to put the tank outside around 7:30 before work and HOPEFULLY most will evacuate. With temps still dipping into the mid 30's range....would the adult survive ok through the night for a few days or is that temp just too cold for her?

Either way, any......spiderlings?... not interested in the tank anymore can evacuate with plenty of time to find a suitable dwelling....or so I hope.

Let me number this for simplicity.
#1. Will our current temperature range of mid 30 lows and high 60's to low 70's temperatures doom the newly hatched spiders?
#2. Will the adult tolerate the temperatures?
#3. In the future, is it at all possible to determine if a female is.....Im gonna go with.......gravid?
#4 How do any of you view your more skiddish spiders?
#5. What is the limitation of spider vision in terms of lights, color etc?

I have a headlamp with a red light, and typical lights. I used the red light thinking it wouldnt be noticable. I was mistaken. Both didnt take kindly to my spying on them and retreated. I would like to be able to watch nocturnal activity without my presence being known if at all possible.

#6. What is the entangling factor for wolf spider webs?

I tried to toss a cricket on the webs and did so successfully. I was, however, surprised to see the crickets moved across the webs with ease. Had it been for example, a black widows web, it would have been certain death. There is a fair amount of debris in these webs though.

At any rate, my apologies for being so long winded. Thank you to anyone willing to dive into and respond to this!