Agelenopsis funnel weavers

[Mike "troll" Dame]

thought y'all might enjoy seeing these, i see their giant funnels all over in the grass and allways wanted to give keeping and breeding them a try.

female


mature male

[Patrick]

Cool spiders Mike. My son finds similar ones in the corners on the outside of our house. Never thought about keeping and breeding them though. Hhhmm.

[Mike "troll" Dame]

i look at things like to use for an exibit, breeding them that more for the experiance of witnessing the event.

heres a typical web from one of them with my hat to give size, thatd be sweet setup ina 30gal long tank.

[Brian Nielsen]

Those are really neat spiders. They look just like the funnel weavers I find around here. I am amazed at some of their silken homes. My favorite are those in which the layering of the funnel tube is visible from a side view. You can see how the complexity is built up over time. Have they done much in the way of web building in the enclosures?

Brian Nielsen

[Mike "troll" Dame]

they were in pill bottles till tonight, the femal molted in the bottle and the male made a sperm web. i just placed the females pillbottle in a tank earlier tonight and she spent awhile goign in and out of it webbign down an invisable sheet going out about 4" from the mouth of the bottle.

[Mike "troll" Dame]

welp the male has now moved into the pill bottle with the female with a curtin between them and i don tthink they are doign the nasty. ive seen this sort of weird houseign arrangement in the wild so wasnt really worried bout someone getting munched

[Megan]

cool pictures... it almost looks like a poke design on their abdomen

[Wade Harrell]

I've never tried breeding them (they're super abundant around here) but they are, as you know, great for exhibits and programs because they can be depended on to web up the inside of just about any container you put them in. They make neat habitrail-like tubes all over. Real easy to care for, unfortunately they seem to be annual in duration and I've never been able to keep them alive much past December.

Wade

[Mike "troll" Dame]

thanx Wade ya i was reading somewhere that they are known to sometimes die still holding their egg sacs, nothing on weather the slings overwinter in the sac or what though i kinda figured they were annual as you never see larger ones in the spring

Originally Posted by Wade Harrell

unfortunately they seem to be annual in duration and I've never been able to keep them alive much past December.

Wade