| Spider Diary - March 2007 |
|
|
|
| Thursday, 25 January 2007 | |||
|
Welcome to the March 2007 Spider Diary ...and sorry it's been a long time coming... I said the reasons were partly technical, and they were - new video cam acquired recently, and needed time to learn it, and partly spider-based, and here I needed time to wait for all the various moulting action going to end, so I could bring you the photos... Believe it or not, if you go through and read it all properly, and watch all the vids, there's actually around 40 minutes of entertainment in this month's diary, so let's grab a cup of tea, and venture unfettered and refreshed down to spider-land... This month's Top Stories...
Undisputed star of attraction today's spidery update must be young Flash, who, you may remember, we have seen absolutely zero of in the last 4 diaries, unless you count the ONE moult of 6 that I have been able to retrieve from her small inner tank. Now she's moulted again, which happened around a week ago, we've had the time to see her out and catching food (before pre-moult), out and poo-ing (again), and then after the moult webbing and re-organizing her tank. Wherever shall we start - I have so much to show you ! I vote we start here, with a beautiful photo of pre-moult Flash eating a cricket. Absolutely worth clicking to see full size. So - how did that cricket end up like that, you might be wondering... well - here's how, thanks to some handy video of the very event ! Still not finished with Flash yet, because a week after the last video, she sealed up her entrance hole with webbing, and went into elusive spider mode, as they do when feeling delicate, or in need of a moult. I then increased her humidity to a fairly constant 80%, knowing this would help in the time before the moult. The usefulness, or not of doing this WHILE the spider is moulting is highly debated, but it definitely seems to be a help in the time immediately before the event. Good news - the moult went well ! She made it through all limbs intact, and I have absolutely no idea where she has put her exuvium - hopefully we will see it disposed of in future videos. So anyway - out popped a bigger, and less blue, but still very beautiful spider...who immediately commenced altering the structure of her webbing so that it was big enough to accommodate her new size and weight. So here's a nice long video of her doing just that, again up to the new standard of video from us with music, titles and visual commentary from yours truly... Wow - what an amazing animal - that's all I can say... I find all that very endearing, but that might be just me. Finally in the Flash department, here's a nice HQ photo of her soaking up the morning atmosphere before embarking on the marathon of webbing we have just seen, which actually went on for several hours afterwards too... Bless that charming little fluffy spider.  Good news ! ZBD moulted this month, as some of you, and certainly me might have been expecting... Have a look at the photos below, the first of which shows her newly retrieved exuvium next to last year's cast-off. Hasn't she grown ? well - by about an inch all round, I'd say - maybe a tad more...  Of course the real spider is now even bigger again - and also by about an inch, bringing her new size to around 8 1/2 inches in leg span, with a body of around 4 inches. For a change, her abdomen is not looking over-full ! However she did put away 2 crickets I fed her yesterday with frightening speed (less than 10 minutes to consume them whole). Here she is, in her first post moult photo, looking nothing short of majestic, with her bright stripes, and vibrant colours. She is now an adult spider, and will soon be looking for love, or rather hoping that it comes to find her. According to how well, (or not) my efforts go, we'll see what happens...  Ginny is up next - our favourite Costa Rican Zebra T, who has been absent from the diaries for a while because she hasn't really being doing much - bit of sitting about, bit if eating, but not much of it, a bit of cage rearrangement - you get the sort of thing. Well - here she is for this month's photo call, looking fit and healthy, and dare I say... relaxed ?  And there we shall leave her for another month. Let's have some more exciting video !! Little Boots, the C. cyaneopubescens is often quite visible, but so small we don't usually the technology to capture her doing her thing other than in still format, or when she's very active, out webbing. However, lately, she has been exhibiting some hugely endearing behaviour involving the remembering of what happened last time, and coming out to meet me when she knows food is imminent. Cue the following video... Bless her, hey :) This is the first of the videos taken on my new video cam... so hopefully the quality will be getting better all the time... This spider is eating like a veritable horse at the moment - where something quite that small puts it all is a mystery to me. It probably goes in all the same places her rubbish does - used to line her webbing and provide additional places of darkness in which to rest. Ah yes - 2 bits of EXCITING NEWS now - you may or may not have noticed that the spider diaries have recently begun introducing some multimedia elements into the overall design of the site. There are now 2 fully interactive flash tours you can go and take, which I've been working on for the last month or so... Click HERE to visit The Spider Room, and interactive look round at the room where it all goes on... Click HERE to visit T-3D - a world first, I believe in 3D tarantula anatomy presentations ! If you can spare a sec, do drop me a line and tell me what you think about these - and any ideas you may have for new ones in the future. Right - the quickies for today... Fluffy has JUST moulted, but you'll have to wait 'til next month to see all that - she did it just too late to make it in here... Legz the Poecilotheria has been out a lot, but not very active, and because she has been hogging a lot of space in the diary, she's not in this month's either, but is eating well and doing absolutely fine. Binky is STILL on a diet after the massive cockroach of 3 weeks ago, and I recently had to rescue a test cricket that went in to see if he was in pre-moult. The fact that it needed rescuing suggests he is, so we can expect a moult from him some time soon. I am wondering whether to move him into his new tank now, or to wait until he moults. So that would just leave Tenebrus, who you may remember we haven't seen featuring in the diaries for about 4 months now, down her extremely secretive nature, and the fact that she almost never leaves her bamboo tube burrow. But a new video cam, some opportune timing, and a spot of daylight has conspired today in our favour, and I am pleased to bring you what is probably the best video I have ever been lucky enough to be around to take ! In 'Hunting with Psalmopoeus', we get a 5 minute stalk-a-thon, where the not-so-little-any-more Tenebrus hunts and takes on an adult field cricket. You can watch this below...soundtrack to this on is a spot of Morcheeba, and once again, we hope they don't mind us borrowing it ! Enjoy... So - I'd hope you all agree that was worth waiting a bit longer for - there was a lot of source material that went into bringing you this months diary !! I have also designed a completely new look and feel for the spider diaries which we will be swapping over to at some point in the near(ish) future - probably on a quiet month when no1 is moulting ! Take care everyone... it's over and out from me and the spider guys and girls for another month... Binky, Flash, Tenebrus, Legz, Fluffy, Boots, Zebs, Ginny & me.
|
|||
| Last Updated ( Saturday, 31 March 2007 ) | |||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|