breeding P. Murinus

[Rebecca Burrett]

hi,
Bred my P. Murinus which went rather well, didnt really take that long.
Hopefully it was sucsessful but just a few q's about it.

How long is the gestation period?
Do we leave the eggsac in with her or take it out?
If we take it out how do we look after it?

Thanks in advance.

[Neil Richardson]

We paired our murinus back in 25th March 2006, first eggsac was produced on 31st May 2006.

She dropped a second eggsac on 22nd September 2006.


First eggsac was infertile and was abandoned by the mother after approximately 14 days.

Second eggsac was much better. Mother guarded it like a demon. We pulled the eggsac on October 19th (Day 28 if my maths is correct)

Upon openning the sac, we found approximately 130 eggs, of which about 40 had developed to nymph1. The contents of the sac were placed on an incubator designed by Ray Gabriel (BTS Journal May 2005 i think).

The unhatched eggs failed to develop any further, and of the 40 n1s, 18 of them made it to n2, resulting in 16 spiderlings.

It took 10-12 days from opening for the n1s to moult to n2s. The first spiderling moulted on November 20th, and the rest on November 22nd.




Incubator of Ray Gabriel design. Shallow dish of water with stocking stretched over the top to hold humidity, and tissue paper on top for the eggs. Heating was provided by an overhead 3W heatpad.





Location of stationary eggsac under log. Mother had been rehoused at this point.





Opening the sac for the first time, showing nymph1






Contents of eggsac on incubator.



Hope this is of some help. PM me if you need any more details.


Neil