| Spider Diary - July 2007 |
|
|
|
| Saturday, 31 March 2007 | ||
|
Welcome to the July 2007 Spider Diary It's a good month over here in spider corner ! We find ourselves positively brimming over with NEW PHOTOS, NEW VIDEO, and even an info packed article or 2. AND I've updated the front page so it's easier to get to the cool things, and see what's changed... Lots more changes, and some not so subtle are planned for later this year, so keep watching. Righty - let's press on ahead and look at... This month's Top Stories...
We shall start with some rather lovely new pics of young 'Flash', our resident Avicularia versicolor, as she expands her domain slightly, and webs her new tank shut ! Bless her. She might have done a crafty moult without me noticing a week ago - a mysterious dark shape has appeared deep within her webbing, she did stop eating for a while, and she looks suspiciously zingy in the colours department as we can see !
If she has indeed done the business, that would make her 8th instar, I believe... let's have a look at her... both of these photos look so much better when viewed full, so don't forget to click them !  Impressive Web extention, hey ? Now look at her colouring once we get the flash out (no pun intended)...  Isn't she beautiful ? Let's remind ourselves what she looked like as little as 6 months ago...  Hard to believe it's the same spider... but it is... Right - moving on - both our adult spiders, Ginny and Zebs are doing fine, and are due to feature in video specials next month, so I'll leave them for now, other than showing you a quick pic of Ginny looking suitably happy and relaxed last week...  She's been doing well this month, and has consumed (since you last saw her) 4 crickets and a large locust. Unusually adventurous for her. He's a depth-of-field shot showing us prey and predator (in that order)...  Moving on, next in line for a quick look must be little 'Blue' our tiniest spider so far, who still isn't much bigger despite her moult last month. He she is, still doing what she does best - mostly nothing. No point in clicking to enlarge it - you can see the slightest trace of blue fangs emerging anyway... here she sits next top her recent exuvium...  Moving swiftly forwards, like a hungry T dare I say, next we shall go look and Legz, our ever growing Poecilotheria fasciata. Who is a hungry T, or rather WAS so until this happened... yes - its the video that wasn't finished in time for last month's diary, so here it is in all its 8 minute glory... pretty exciting footage I hope you'll agree... Good stuff, hey ? Shortly after this meal (2 weeks in fact) she moulted, and is now a very impressive sub adult 9th instar Pokie. Here's some photos of that whole happy experience, which went without a hitch... look particularly at her amazing moult mat webbing.  This was one day before she moulted. Let's go and see her in progress...    And there we must leave her for today too, as we have so much more to pack in... Let's pause and gather ourselves for a little digression into the fascinating world of Tarantula webbing. It differs in many ways and uses from how true spiders use webbing, and you can read my recent illustrated article by clicking here... Right, on to our smaller growing girls... Here's our other recent moultee, who like Flash, chose to do it hidden away from my prying camera. Fortunately, she chose to emerge afterwards, and i retrieved her moult, check everything was still attached where it should be, and here she is looking simply wonderful...   Moving swiftly on, as indeed the next spider does, here's FLUFFY, our resident Lasiodorides striatus doing her hanging on at weird angle things... again ALL worth a click for a bigger view (except the first one, which is already full size)... she iS getting big these days, isn't she ?  Look at her hanging on !! Amazing grip, and she's not even arboreal...  So where next ? Let's go see young Binky, our 7 legged hero. He continues to manage absolutely fine with one leg missing, and today attempts some impressive digging antics captured here for your viewing pleasure... ...and here's a photo of her resting afterwards...  And we must conclude today with some shots I've been awaiting for really quite some time. AT LAST Tenebrus decided to put in a brief appearance, and for the 5 minutes she left her tube burrow for this month, I had a camera at the ready to catch her at it. He's little black lightning, as we never normally see her...  From the underside, and now from above...  And that would be the end of another action-packed arachnid report ! No doubt there will be new wondrous goings-on next month, so I hope to see you then...thanks for reading and take care... ZBD, Ginny, Legz, Fluffy, Tenebrus, Boots, Flash, Blue, Binky & me... |
||
| Last Updated ( Saturday, 30 June 2007 ) | ||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|