Huntsman Spider and Spiderlings

bugman

April 3rd, 2007 at 12:00 am

Categories

Spiders

breeding huntsman spider
Hi,
Your site was very helpful with identifying my pet spider. I think it is a huntsman or giant crab spider and definitely a female. Only her breeding behavior doesn’t match the description. I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and a friend found the spider in her basement. Instead of killing it she asked me to take it. After a couple of days of feasting on crickets and becoming VERY round, she started a kind of cocoon in one upper corner of her cage.

She was INSIDE the snowball sized construct and over a couple of days it became so dense, I couldn’t look through anymore. This was in January and yesterday the Mom spider came out of the cocoon, followed by about 100 tiny babies. I think, I won’t have a roach problem for the next couple of years…. Have you heard of a spider that is actually inside a cocoon with to lay her eggs or was that just an improvised burrow because the cage didn’t provide an ideal nursery place ? If so, she was pretty inventive. I’ll attach some pictures when she started the cocoon and some from yesterday with the babies and the VERY HUNGRY mom (has not eaten for three months). I transferred the "nest" to a bigger container without so many openings. You can see mom coming out of the crumbled looking cocoon (moving damage).

She later Squeezed the cocoon from inside and made it smaller and smaller and every convulsion made more and more babies to leave the safe home. They ran straight up towards the glass cover. You never stop learning with those amazing pets. I hope it’s not too much, but I’m really excited about it.
Martina

Wow Martina,
Your photo documentation is awesome. We believe this is a Golden Huntsman Spider, Olios fasciculatus. Our Audubon Guide says the “female carries egg sac in jaws until spiderlings emerge and disperse.” We are not sure about the nursery web behavior, but your photo documentation might be scientifically noteworthy.