Indian Social Spiders - S. sarasinorum

[Peter Lacey]

During a nice day at BRAS (Barking Reptile show) I felt compelled to spend some money on something and I toyed with either Lycosa sp or a community of 10+ Stegodyphus sarasinorum. Now these little spiders are amazing to watch and I had the pleasure of Martin Goss showing me how effective they were.
He took out his large community where adults and offspring happily roamed an enclosure approx 2ft square, very much webbed up over thin branches. They were spread out to cover the whole tub and there were clearly some egg sacks amongst the webbing. The size of the spids ranged from money spider size to finger nail (LS) so I was rather surprised when he put an adult locust in amongst them, firmly pressed into their webbing. This became a magnet for the S. sarasinorum as the whole community seemed to desend on the locust. Not even the little spids were deterred and whilst I felt a little sorry for the locust (alien films came to mind) it was fascinating to see how this community interacted.

Obviously I had to go home with a tub of socialites. I'm curious to know if anyone else has these and any tips for keeping them. Due to the fact they're so small the air holes in the tub are blocked up and I've found in my loft/spider room their tub has filled with condensation.

[Peter Roach]

Drill or make some larger grouping of holes and cover them with several layers of fine curtain netting (glue or staple ? ) or ask me nicely and I'll let you have some 2.5 inch circular 0.5mm steel mesh cutouts

[Peter Lacey]

Drill or make some larger grouping of holes and cover them with several layers of fine curtain netting (glue or staple ? ) or ask me nicely and I'll let you have some 2.5 inch circular 0.5mm steel mesh cutouts

yeah that's what I figured, was considering some nylon stockings but they probably look better on the mrs.
Martin suggested I keep them dry so the condensation isn't helping. The steel mesh would be most welcome (assuming its fine mesh), please mr Roach, please sir, oh plleeeeeeeeeeease

[Colin D Wilson]

Peter (thats the "Lacey one" not the "Roach one")

If you go to yout local pound shop they will probably have those round frying pan splash guards, these have a very fine mesh, are easy to cut and are easily secured in place with a hot glue gun.
I buy these now instead of the "proprietry meshing" and have had no problems with it.

Also James bought a small community of these spiders from Newark so you can share results and experiences with him.

[James Box]

yes indeed Colin!
i would've been at the BRAS show, but was attending a bbq out of town.
as Colin said, i got three females at Newark, and a sling accidentally thrown in gratis.
i have got one eggsac so far, hoping for a couple more though. the strange thing is that mine aren't so eager to feed...or maybe three isn't enough to tackle a fair sized cricket, or they just weren't hungry.
however recently i put maggots in and they seemed to have vanished, so that's either escaping or being eaten. as i've blocked off the airholes, there's hopefully little chance of the former.
they are great spiders (i LOVE Eresidae!) and i'm looking forward to seeing some pack hunting in the future.

[Peter Lacey]

I counted 13 of them yesterday, woo hoo! no egg sacs and not too much evidence of webbing but I'm hoping it will be the start of a good community. There was an alternative tub with 3 or 4 adults and at least 1 eggsac but I thought I'd go for instant numbers and watch the development.

[James Box]

i should've got more than 3 but i will eventually add to their numbers.
great little things at any rate.

[Peter Lacey]

Thanks for your Eresidae clue James.
Found this interesting read on spiders of the same genus, with reference to S. sarasinorum:
http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v16_n1/JoA_v16_p35.pdf

[Peter Lacey]

and more info:
http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v22_n2/JoA_v22_p108.pdf

[James Box]

thanks for locating that, Peter
quite alot of info. amazing how tolerant the African ones are, even of other species.