|
|
 |
|
|
Giant Amazon Fishing Spider - Andy Newman Images©
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Giant Amazon Fishing Spider (Ancylometes Bogotensis)
|
|
|
|
When I fist placed this male into the females enclosure, it was the female which approached the male, with front legs straight forward and she was making a rocking movement, but when they touched the male which is also a large spider stood up on back legs, and they both fought with there legs, like sword fencers at such a speed there legs were just a blur, I wish had my camer ready, no harm came to eather spider. I had not seen this behaviour before, I placed lots of crickets in the tank, hoping the female would not eat the male, so I was disappointed that two weeks later he got eaten. I can only assume she got what she wanted. I have another pair in a larger tank with logs for the male to hide. But I think its probably during the mating that the male gets eaten. The two crickets above left are plotting there escape.
|
|
|
I have now lost all my male spiders, all eaten by the females, hopefully during mating, a nice meal for the female and it ensures the male do not fertile any other females. All these adults are from the baby spiders I reared, the mother spider, brought from Entomological supplier Virginia Cheesman. Having read on the web, that scientist have studied many of the mating of this species, and have discovered that the females eat the the males before, during or after mating, so I will just have to wait and see, if there will be any spiderlings.
|
|
|
|
|
|
03/04/10 - Well I have been very successful in breeding my own spiderlings, exactly one month after my first of many females killed and ate a male, I now have hundreds of baby spiders, To hatch them I kept a shallow dish of water in the spiders container covered in wet moss, this was washed and watered every day, and placed into the hottest area of the vivarium under a red light. The female spent most of the time with her egg sac pressed against the moss, only occasionally would she dip the egg sac into a separate water dish. she is now taking crickets from my fingers probably fattening herself up for another egg sac.
|
|
