Ok sooooo I decided since this first spider surprised me and her offspring had already hatched......I would remove the large piece of wood in the center and hopefully move her to what, from a human perspective, would be more ideal given the way she crafted her web in the cocohut.

This meant destroying her well crafted web. I didnt want to do that but it was required for the change I intended to make. She made heavy use of that wood as an anchor for her web. So moving on, I flip the cocohut over, partially eager to see the remnants of her eggsac she HAD to have laid, given there were spiderlings all over in her tank....and littered throughout the house.....sigh. Wife not terribly fond of this lol. But thats ok =).

The pictures that follow are what I found inside which delighted and....well kind of are disturbing to me. Im not sure how to interpret this. Recall the other spider with her eggsac I showed. The substrate in both situations is a SMALL amount of vermiculite I believe with T-rex forest bedding substrate. That is largely the debris you will see in the webs themselves. Below is what I found when I flipped this hut over.


So its clear....this first picture is 6 of the spiderlings I pulled from the tank with a leaf and gave a fighting chance for food in the rough world that is our parking lot =p.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... 0011-2.jpg

Penny for size =).

The rest are her with what I hope are not multiple Eggsacs.......seriously....

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... 0010-2.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... 0009-1.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... 0008-1.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... NY0006.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... NY0003.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... NY0002.jpg


Below is the FINISHED PRODUCT from the OTHER spider (caps lock for clarity =p) that created what I assume to be an eggsac a week ago or so.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn23 ... 0016-1.jpg

I drew circles around the proposed sac and spider that generated it =).

I appear to have, if nothing else, presented a pleasantly desirable home for both...occupants. Thats good at least =).

If anyone wants to see what I intended for this spider to use as a home let me know and I will snap a pic or 2 and link it here.


Thanks in advance to those who offer guidance/explanations as to what the heck this spider is doing!

I also feel I should add that what I am asking about in these photos would be oriented towards the top ....maybe middle top of the cocohuts in both spiders arrangements. Per their own preference apparently. So they are essentially hanging from the walls here whatever they are =). I was reading the TKG and read about tarantulas creating a bolus with more then one prey item....could this be a similiar curcumstance? Maybe it isnt all eggsac?


Im confused...someone help! =)

I think whats confusing me the most is that if these are eggsacs, from what Im learning....via the always accurate google searchs .....is that wolf spiders tend to carry the sac around with them. If it IS a sac in both cases....y arent they doing the same thing? finding a picture to match these 2 is nearly impossible ....sigh.

I'm thinking that's not a wolf spider, it's looking more like a grass spider, family Agelenidae (or something from a similar family). They are often mistaken for wolf spiders due to an overall similar body shape, but as web-building spiders they have a very different lifestyle. That webbing certainly looks more like Agelenidae, and so does the eggsac! It's a pretty big group of similar-looking spiders, and identifying them to species can be difficult.

Grass spiders make pretty neat captives as they web a lot. The only problem is they're relatively short-lived compared to wolf spiders.

Wade

Wade you are awesome. The more I watched these 2 spiders, the less likely they seemed to be wolf spiders.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/165497

These look nearly identical to what I have here. The biggest thing I think that bugged me here is the fact that they didnt handle their eggsacs like I had been reading. This is excellent!

seriously....this was driving me nuts =). I assaulted the library on a quest for books on specific species. Naturally with no luck. The 15 books I generated via Amazon ....Barnes and Noble didnt have =(.

Anyway. The very first spider I had, the disappearing one if you recall, was a Wolf spider. Im convinced now.It caught the cricket and laid on its back while biting it which fits at least the feeding habits described.

I felt odd about that spider I guess. it always seemed very nomadic which made me feel sort of bad for it in a way. Where I feel better about these with regard to a sationary home...a hub....a go to place I guess.

I know that too is part of its behavior/lifestyle etc.

One day...jumping spider! I LOVE those guys.

I cant stay away from spiders now........I might be obbessed.

There's worse things to be obsessed with

It's going to be hard to find books on identifying spiders to genus from normal sources, but here's one from BioQuip (a GREAT source for harder-to-get specialty invert books):

http://www.bioquip.com/search/DispProduct.asp?pid=3752A

Like most specialty scientific books, it ain't cheap, but anyone serious about studying NA spiders will want it in their library!

Wade

Wade is the Egg sac...gestation? period the same as a Wolf spiders? I think it was estimated at around 2 weeks.

I have fruit flies producing future meals atm so hopefully it all works out!

Not sure on that! I suspect, being that their lifespan seems to be of annual in nature that temperature is a major factor. Many spider species "hatch" in the fall but remain in the eggsac until spring when temperatures rise. Kept indoors, some seem to still keep to that timetale, while others will emerge after a just a few weeks.

I've never tried to rear angelenids, so I'm interested to see how this goes!

Wade

Well these Spiders are confusing. One had some spiderlings and they ended up all over the place. I have retrieved around 20-30 of them. I thought she was done with babies but her Eggsac cluster?..is huge compared to her. The other one I caught making an eggsac has, towards the end of last week, made another eggsac right next to the original so Im confused as to just how many of these they make!

I rounded up a lot of the babies today and put them in what turned out to be an awesome container. A one gallon Beta tank! Just taped over the openings and the seal the lid provides seems to be adequate. I put small pieces of wod on the ground thinking for SURE they would start covering things with webs but so far, they seem to prefer the illusion of being suspended in mid air!

At any rate the fruit flies are on their way. I just need to figure out EXACTLY what these spiders do when they create eggsacs etc. I assumed it was one like I see widows do. So far, this isnt the case. Unless these arent eggsacs afterall. If they arent then I dont have a clue what they are, limited knowledge and all!

As changes occur, I will update you!