| Spider Diary - September 2006 |
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| Wednesday, 02 August 2006 | |
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Welcome to the September Diary ! Oh, it's all been going on this month... where on earth do I start ? Taking pride of place in this months report must be new arrival, Tenebrus, a delightful baby P. irminia that had not been here 4 hours before she had escaped, and led me on a massive recovery mission that lasted around 48 hours. That episode was worth a special report, which you can read here . There is another introductory report, and pics of her here , in the latest diary supplemental... and not only that, but there is new VIDEO of Tenebrus, in her recapture container, where she had her first ever encounter with food... click here to see how she got on... Moving on to Ginny, who, on the 14th of this month, completed her yearly moult... indeed - October last year was the last time she did that. First things first - despite choosing the highly restricted space of her 'burrow 2' that she dug a month or 2 back, she made it through absolutely fine, with no problems that I have yet noticed. Not that I have seen her underside yet. Post-moult seemanni don't move very far at all, and it is for this reason that a) I don't have ANY photos of her latest exuvium (it lies squashed underneath her at the moment) and b) we have no new photos of post moult spider ! What we do have, is a a night vision cam shot of her mid-moult... Photos with borders round them, like this one, can be clicked to view the full size image....  Here she is, 2 days bfore her moult, stilll looking wonderful, in one of the best photos of her I've ever been lucky enough to get...  There will be photos of what is left of her moulting experience, and indeed the shiny new spider, as soon as she comes out and basks in the open for a bit ! Well - OK - just ONE of the shiny new spider having a refreshing drink after her dehydrating moult...  Meanwhile, over in sling city, things are going well for little Flash, the youngest of my spiders... She too moulted last month, and has now commenced eating, which she does with gusto and impressive speed... Also, the first of her personality traits has become apprarent, and very endearing it is too; every time I go in and mist her enclosure, she leaves the safety of her funnel web, and comes out to see ! She usually walks to the top of the container, pops a leg or 2 over the side, then walks calmly back in... Although my hand is there to save her in the extremely unlikely even that she falls, she seems reluctant to put more than a foot on it before sensing the heat, and gently withdrawing. Here is a photo of young Flash outside her magnificent newly spun tube web...  Notice the wonderful blue colouring still looking great, and her increasing hairyness. This will go on right through to adulthood, when they appear almost 'fluffy'... Legz, my small poecilotheria is not small anymore. This month I have been lucky enough to see her in all her new sized glory, and can report that she has now overtaken the largest of UK house spiders, and has a legspan of around 6.5 cm. Here she is, looking large, and eating lunch.  I clocked her speed during a strike this week to be at MINIMUM 15cm per 30th of a second. That is SERIOUSLY fast, even for arboreals, even though, when extrapolated up, it only equates to just over 10 miles an hour, and of course a spider could never sustain that speed for longer than short bursts - they need to stop, to breathe, among other things ! Next on the list of spiders doing interesting things is Binky, who ate an enormous death's head cockroach this week, which, if I m honest, was too big for me to be feeding her. But - as you will see - she tackled it with enthusiasm and energy, and although it took her a full 35 hours to finish it, thats exactly what she did, and now a 2" cockroach is a small pile of heavily webbed fluff on the floor. I'll get it out as soon as she'll let me, and /or stops sitting on it ! Why do they always sit on it !?? And Binky is the subject of this months video special. There are a series of 4 clips I captured during the cockroach extravaganza, and here we have part 2 - Just after the initial strike has taken place, and Binky has realised that he is dealing with something a hell of a lot bigger, and more resilient than a cricket. Prepare for action ! The other parts which include the stalking, the waiting, and latterly the webbing, killing, and start of the eating are available to view in the video links section, so please make your way here to see those... not recommended for those who have any sympathy for cockroaches. After the meal, her opsithosoma was roughly double its previous size, as can be seen in this photo...  Meanwhile, Fluffsters, bless her, has been out and about. She's moulted again too, and is now chasing Legz in the size department (not literally, thank God). I guess her to have a legspan of around 4 cm, up 1.5 from before she moulted. She climbs alot, when so disposed, but not in the same 'escape mission' type way as Ginny used to - this is more just standard exploring, and she likes to sit on the glass for extended periods of time. However, at the slightest disturbance, or movement, she will teleport back to her burrow, almost too fast to see her doing it. Last night she took a large pinhead cricket about the same size as her with no problem at all - first strike lucky. So that's another happily fed spider. Here's a pic of her, in free wander mode...for a size reference, the red water bowl is a coke bottle cap.  Here she is parked for the day on the underside of the roof !  Lastly, Zebs is still her majestic massive fat happy self. She's had a large roach this month too, and has mostly been sitting still, and basking out in the open as content, and calm spiders do. There is also some new video of Zebs having a little groom placed here for your viewing pleasure... And here's a pic to prove it ! Also well worth a look full view this one, for the additional detail.  So - all well on the spider front this month - no escapes (well, Ok, just the one), or otherwise badness, all of them still doing their thing in their own sweet ways, and keeping me occupied 10 to the dozen updating my website with everything they've been getting up to, and watching over them while they moult ! But hey - I wouldn't miss it for the world ! I've only had time to include a few of the many recently added photos in the gallery. Click here to see just the latest additions. And that's it from me and them for another month... stay tuned, and thanx for reading... B, F, F, Z, G, L, T and J |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 31 August 2006 ) |
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