Welcome to a new year of spider diaries ! Oh yes, we're back after rather a long break, but you always knew we would be, didn't you ? New skills have been learned, new designs have been hatched, and we are back with a vengeance, although not in flash format I was imagining when we took a break last year. And why not ? Simple. I want these pages to act as help, information, and inspiration for all new and existing spider keepers, and doing the whole diary in flash means that it is more difficult for search engines to find the content, so for now we shall plough onwards and upwards in good old HTML, safe in the knowledge that the information is then instantly available to those who search for it. But enough of this - let's jump straight in there with...

LATEST HEADLINES... 

We remind ourselves who is who...
Catch up on who has moulted...
Say goodbye to a precious friend...
View the last video featuring young 'Blue'
Move the spiders to a new location...
Get back to those good old regular updates.

Well it's been a very long time, so let's have some pics which remind us all who is who in the current roll-call of spiders... The more observant among you may notice that we have one spider less than we did in the last diary, but more about that later...

We'll kick off with a latest look at Boots, who is a rapidly growing, and strikingly coloured Greenbottle Blue Tarantula...
 

As usual, it would be criminal not to click it for a full size view (opens in a new window / tab - close to return to the diary)... 

In this photo, taken just this morning, we see a stunningly vivid spider, who moulted just a week ago, and is, in fact still reclining (in what looks like an extremely uncomfortable postion) on her recent moulting mat. She produces SO much webbing, it is very hard to know what is normal web, and what is a moulting mat, so you'll just have to take my word for it... Believe it or not, I have not dicked with the colours in this, so that is actually what she looks like. Beautiful girl, hey ? 

Next up, let's go and see Binky, one of our largest regulars, who you may remember had a disastrous 13th instar moult, but then survived, and grew another leg... here she / he is (we still don't know if we're talking male or female)...

As you can see, she's still going strong (we'll assume female this month - call it wishful thinking). She is a very large and robust spider, around 6" in legspan already, and only just over half grown... she has the sort of bottom that Queen write songs about, and is the perfect display spider, who very rarely feels the need to hide, and is almost always out in the open. She is an enthusiastic terraformer, and can move very large amounts of earth at a time, as she reshapes her huge tank to her liking. (see previous videos)... I have been keeping her since she was given to me at a trade fair, and she arrived measuring less than 1cm - that's what you call 'progress'... this would be partly because she eats like a total pig !

So who is up next in our pantheon of pedipalps ? That'd be Tenebrus, our dark mistress of the night...

Tenebrus, sometimes referred to by me as 'Black Lightning' is exactly that. She's a Venezuelan Suntiger, and she means business. Currently at 9th instar, she is another spider I have kept since very shortly after birth, and is only now  starting to be less reclusive. It is very hard to get her tank conditions exactly right, and lots of regular misting, and new earth has to be added to keep her truly happy. Some people would suggest that P.irminia are aggressive spiders, but I have seen absolutely no sign of this whatsoever. Skittish - yes, nervous, yes, incredibly fast, yes, yes, yes, but never so much as a single threat posture has ever been thrown at me, even during what must surely be rather stressy tank changes. A truly wonderful animal to behold...

Moving on, next up is young Fluffy, a Peruvian Orange-stripe T, who seems to get larger every day, and is rapidly turning into a dark and leggy example of her kind... 

Here is another animal that is large enough to stand it's ground when disturbed, but again, never shows any sign of hostility, and remains out in the open a lot of the time, although if I interfere with her surroundings too much she has been known to walk off in a huff, retreat to her burrow and ignore me. What she may lack in dynamic colouring she makes up for in huge levels of curiosity, and needs to be watched carefully when tanks are open, as she will feel the need to explore, and does not consider her tank to be the limit of her wanderings. She will grow up to be a larger, more robust, and braver version of Ginny, and I really do find her very endearing...

And talking of which, let's go and see how Ginevra, our favourite Costa rican Zebra T is doing...for those who don't know, she's an adult (confirmed) female, and the one of only 2 spiders I keep that I have not raised from birth.

Oh, I do love this little girl. She's not a huge spider, coming in at perhaps 5" legspan fully grown, but she was my first T, and she's a really very smart-looking animal. I have kept her for 5 years now, and only once has she got even slightly cross with me, and threw a 40 minute threat postion when I was trying to refill her water bowl. That was over 3 years ago, and she has since realised that tank invasions are not any sort of threat to her, though they still tend to send her heading for her burrow, which recently, is only a slight dent in the substrate in one corner of the tank. She is sitting in it in the photo above.

And from one spider who is rather slow and sedentary, to one that is the fastest (and most venemous to boot) of them all, and to my ongoing disappointment, also the most reclusive - let's go and see Legz, our awesome but shy and retiring Poecilotheria (Sri Lankan Ornamental)...

Legz, named for obvious reasons, has a rather small bodyshape, and a relatively massive legspan. Itis difficult to get ANY sort of decent photo of her because she spends the vast majority of her time hidden in one of her bamboo tube hides, or reclining in darkness on the underside of her cork bark. Supremely nervous, fast and agile, she is the spider who I must treat with utter respect at all times, perhaps moreso than any of the others. However, I am happy to know that she is content with her life, evidenced by the fact that she has never even attempted an escape, and again, contrary to guides I have read, displays none of the aggression so often reported in the species. However next month I am moving her to a very much larger tank, as she has now grown to around a 6"+ legspan, which I hope will give her more incentive to bask out in the open, even if it is only at night. That'll be fun. She doesn't like moving house.

Let's go and see how young Flash is doing, shall we ? She is a Martinique Pinktoe, and is the smallest (when adult size, which she isn't yet) and fluffiest little arboreal spider I keep. 

What young Flash lacks in physical size, she more than makes up for in personality and colouring. Not a big eater, she is, however extremely fast when she is hungry, and has been known to make dramatic but short leaps and jumps to catch her dinner. She is completely non-agressive, but rather nervous, and will usually calmly walk into her nearest burrow web (she has 3) as soon asm or shortly after I open her tank doors. Occasionally I find her exploring the full reaches of her large enclosure, but more often than not she prefers to stay very close to 'home base', only emerging when hungry, or to endearingly climb on to the roof of her enclosure whenever I mist her tank. She likes to drink directly from the water droplets that fall through her mesh rather than from the 2 large water bowls that I provide, which are essential to her well-being and humidity requirements, regardless of whether she actually uses them for drinking. She is a delicate soul, and needs good airflow AND high humidity, making her slightly tricky to look after well. Needless to say, the effort is well worth it - she is a truly wonderous animal.

Which just leaves one more spider to remind you all of, and she is a positive leviathan of a spider. Below you will find the latest pic of ZBD, a huge female Giant White-knee Tarantula, who has been with me for the last 3 years, and continues to thrive, mostly by eating more than all the others put together...

ZBD is very large and very powerful, and absolutely knows it. Left to her own devices, she is a very calm and tranquil spider, but as soon as food, water, or anything else (including me) enters her space, she very quickly registers her disappointment, and feels the need to rush over and threat posture at whatever is invading her space. This can be quite amusing when its just the water bowl being filled, and seeing her threat for an hour at a few drops of water does make me wonder just what she imagines could possibly be a threat to her. She will ALWAYS come and investigate the smallest of disturbances, and has been known to flick hairs with very little provocation. And what extremely irritating hairs she posseses ! I swear I get more affected by them every time I must interact with her, or her environment. But I love her nonetheless, and I will always have a soft spot for her interesting personality. It is a good job that she doesn't bite because her fangs are well over 1 cm long (see the latest exuvium shot below), and would cause not insignificant mechanical damage should she decide to truly go on the defensive. In fact so large is her mouth, and chelicerae, that she does not need to spin a feeding mat to deal with large crickets, and seems to almost swallow them whole, making them disappear completely in under a minute, which is unique among the spiders I look after.

She is also quite intelligent as they go, and when hungry will move to the corner of her tank where food always appears, and has learned that this is an effective and reliable way to get me to dispense her crickety treats. She would aboslutely go for a live mouse should I offer it, although those familiar with the diaries will know I do not approve of feeding live vertebrate prey, and she does perfectly fine without it. In most spiders' cases I am the first to say 'its not all about the fangs', but in her case, I rather think it might be. Let's have a look...

Yep - whoppers arn't they ? Fortunately she has never felt the need to deploy them at me.

So, lastly we come to the sad story of little 'Blue', our previously well-featured Blue-fang Skeleton T, who is, alas, no more.
I won't go into details now, as I have written a separate article that you can read here.

However, I would like to share with you the last video I was to make of her, shot 2 days before the end... Pease do view it - I have rarely seen such fascinating, and hopelessly endearing behaviour from such a small tarantula, and I will always remember her with much fondness, and love. Her untimely death does not mean that I have removed her pics from the site - just moved them to a new category that I had hoped I would never have to create. Rest in peace, little girl :(

Lastly, for this month's fairly large diary, we end on a more positive note. Here is a quick montage of a few of the moults that have happened whist I've been away - I hope you will agree it's fascinating stuff ! Until next month, take care, and that's goodbye from me, and the girls...

B, G, B, Z, F, F, L, T and me...