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hi, weve had an intresting few weeks recently that id thought id share with you all.
On the 25th june my mother in law found an eggsac on a bunch of bananas, she rang the shop where she got the bananas from and they told her to pop them in the freezer and bring them back to the shop to sent off for identification, she told them that with two spider lovers in the family she wouldnt, she was then asked to bring the bag in and they will scan the bar code and tell what country the bananas came from, after telling them she no longer had the bag they said they wish the best of luck.
We placed the banana in a cricket pot, the eggsac is was about 2cm in length. The slings themselves were approx 3mm with a jet black carapce and abdomen and bright red legs and white on the part where the fangs come from {apoligies dont the name of that part}.
We placed 2balls of wet cotton wool to build up the humidity.
Alot of the slings were already dead, we put down to stress, lack of the right conditions and cannabilisation, 8 of the slings we could see were alive and well.
We contacted Ray Gabriel/Richard Gallon about them and they said it was most probaly a type of Sparrasid/hetropoda, after searching the net we decided that they wernt that as the shape of the slings were differant.
4 days later we moved two of the slings in to camera cases with fruit fly even though the flies were bugger than the slings we still hoped that they would feed, unfortunatly they both died over that and we decided not to move anymore, whilst we moved them the discorved there was more of them we added fruitfly to the cricket pot and a few ate.
6th July the banana had started going mouldy and we decided it was time to move the slings, i opened the lid straight off {which was stupid of me} looked in and thought they arent fruitfly running around and quickly put the lid back on.
We started moving them and noticed they are highly alert, quick, some were quite aggressive. We was using a thin stick to move them and as we moved the stick towards one it put up a front leg and waved at us, we moved back and it did again, {they also communicatd with each other} we placed fruitfly in with each and some jumped which led me to believe they are a type of jumping spider, one was completly differant color to the rest being a mottled grey/brown color with little tufts of the front legs. Altogether there were 41 slings, that built little hammock like webs at the top of the pots, which made think that these were not jumpers {i didnt think jumpers made webs}.We numbered each pot aswell and checked them daily.
5days later 1 shed and 2 dead and 1 that had vanaished {there was noway it could of got out}, the next day 2more had died and the next day there was a substancial loss.
We tried feeding fruitfly and micro crix both to big for the slings.
After a couple of days of sunshine and had a brainwave, i collected some blackfly and aphids being small and slow i thought they would be perfect, we put a couple in each pot and left them to it for a few days.
Unfortnatly we now have lost the majority of the slings but the upside we still have 6 that are eating and are general well, we still do not know what they are and not holding my hopes up about the others surviving, they are facsinating to watch and are brilliant stalkers sneaking up on their prey from behind.
We put the dead ones into the freezer to preserve them, as i would like to send them off to get identified if possible.
Thankyou for listening to me ramble on and will keep you all updated.
On the 25th june my mother in law found an eggsac on a bunch of bananas, she rang the shop where she got the bananas from and they told her to pop them in the freezer and bring them back to the shop to sent off for identification, she told them that with two spider lovers in the family she wouldnt, she was then asked to bring the bag in and they will scan the bar code and tell what country the bananas came from, after telling them she no longer had the bag they said they wish the best of luck.
We placed the banana in a cricket pot, the eggsac is was about 2cm in length. The slings themselves were approx 3mm with a jet black carapce and abdomen and bright red legs and white on the part where the fangs come from {apoligies dont the name of that part}.
We placed 2balls of wet cotton wool to build up the humidity.
Alot of the slings were already dead, we put down to stress, lack of the right conditions and cannabilisation, 8 of the slings we could see were alive and well.
We contacted Ray Gabriel/Richard Gallon about them and they said it was most probaly a type of Sparrasid/hetropoda, after searching the net we decided that they wernt that as the shape of the slings were differant.
4 days later we moved two of the slings in to camera cases with fruit fly even though the flies were bugger than the slings we still hoped that they would feed, unfortunatly they both died over that and we decided not to move anymore, whilst we moved them the discorved there was more of them we added fruitfly to the cricket pot and a few ate.
6th July the banana had started going mouldy and we decided it was time to move the slings, i opened the lid straight off {which was stupid of me} looked in and thought they arent fruitfly running around and quickly put the lid back on.
We started moving them and noticed they are highly alert, quick, some were quite aggressive. We was using a thin stick to move them and as we moved the stick towards one it put up a front leg and waved at us, we moved back and it did again, {they also communicatd with each other} we placed fruitfly in with each and some jumped which led me to believe they are a type of jumping spider, one was completly differant color to the rest being a mottled grey/brown color with little tufts of the front legs. Altogether there were 41 slings, that built little hammock like webs at the top of the pots, which made think that these were not jumpers {i didnt think jumpers made webs}.We numbered each pot aswell and checked them daily.
5days later 1 shed and 2 dead and 1 that had vanaished {there was noway it could of got out}, the next day 2more had died and the next day there was a substancial loss.
We tried feeding fruitfly and micro crix both to big for the slings.
After a couple of days of sunshine and had a brainwave, i collected some blackfly and aphids being small and slow i thought they would be perfect, we put a couple in each pot and left them to it for a few days.
Unfortnatly we now have lost the majority of the slings but the upside we still have 6 that are eating and are general well, we still do not know what they are and not holding my hopes up about the others surviving, they are facsinating to watch and are brilliant stalkers sneaking up on their prey from behind.
We put the dead ones into the freezer to preserve them, as i would like to send them off to get identified if possible.
Thankyou for listening to me ramble on and will keep you all updated.
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