Tweet
Hi all,
firstly i'd like to share my evenings experiences with you,
A week ago I recieved a mature male H.gigas to pair with my recently matured female, i was specifically looking for a recently matured male and was lucky enough to find one that had matured a few months ago and has been making fresh sperm webs. I gave hime a week to get over the trauma of being driven to my house and decided tonight was the night to introduce him to his blind date.
Over the last week i have fed my girl up on a few good sized Dubai roaches to ensure the male didn't look like an oversized meal. Each night after coming out and catching her dinner she retreated back into her burrow and sealed the entrance, tonight was no exception.
I used a cricket tub to transfer the male into her enclosure with minimal fuss, infact he seemed quite willing and practically transported himself. I placed the open tub on the floor of the females enclosure and he immediately climbed out.
After wandering around for about a minute and a half he helped himself to a drink from the water dish and casually strolled over to the entrance to the females burrow, he placed one of his front legs on the top of the stone hide and seemed to lean there like a man who is waiting outside a womans house for her to finish getting ready for a date, he did not have to wait long.
After a few seconds a pair of legs appeared inside the entrance and began rapidly drumming the substrate, the male seemed to recognize this as a way of telling him she was coming out because he backed up a little allowing enough space for her to completely exit the burrow.
They seemed to stare at eachother for a moment and then without warning the female raised her front pair of legs, i held my breath for a moment thinking this could go terribly wrong but as bold as brass the male walked strait up to her and she began arching herself backwards, the male found the epigineal opening and inserted one embolus then the other and soon it was all over. The female calmly turned around and walked back down her burrow leaving the male stood outside.
The thing i found interesting was that it seemed to be the female that initiated the mating by drumming, she called him over and then presented herself to him, i've heard of receptive females but surly none this "easy" lol. The male did not recipricate the drumming nor did he do anything else that i would consider a courtship ritual, it appears his mere presence was enough for the female to come out and offer herself on a plate.
I would also like to take this oppertunity to ask any of you who have had previous experience with breeding this species or have observed them and their rituals in the wild what to expect now, How long after the mating (if it was successful) before an eggsac will be produced and how long after eggsac production will spiderlings emerge. Would you advise me to pull the sac or leave it with mum?
anything you can offer about post mating conditioning and time scales would be very much appreciated.
firstly i'd like to share my evenings experiences with you,
A week ago I recieved a mature male H.gigas to pair with my recently matured female, i was specifically looking for a recently matured male and was lucky enough to find one that had matured a few months ago and has been making fresh sperm webs. I gave hime a week to get over the trauma of being driven to my house and decided tonight was the night to introduce him to his blind date.
Over the last week i have fed my girl up on a few good sized Dubai roaches to ensure the male didn't look like an oversized meal. Each night after coming out and catching her dinner she retreated back into her burrow and sealed the entrance, tonight was no exception.
I used a cricket tub to transfer the male into her enclosure with minimal fuss, infact he seemed quite willing and practically transported himself. I placed the open tub on the floor of the females enclosure and he immediately climbed out.
After wandering around for about a minute and a half he helped himself to a drink from the water dish and casually strolled over to the entrance to the females burrow, he placed one of his front legs on the top of the stone hide and seemed to lean there like a man who is waiting outside a womans house for her to finish getting ready for a date, he did not have to wait long.
After a few seconds a pair of legs appeared inside the entrance and began rapidly drumming the substrate, the male seemed to recognize this as a way of telling him she was coming out because he backed up a little allowing enough space for her to completely exit the burrow.
They seemed to stare at eachother for a moment and then without warning the female raised her front pair of legs, i held my breath for a moment thinking this could go terribly wrong but as bold as brass the male walked strait up to her and she began arching herself backwards, the male found the epigineal opening and inserted one embolus then the other and soon it was all over. The female calmly turned around and walked back down her burrow leaving the male stood outside.
The thing i found interesting was that it seemed to be the female that initiated the mating by drumming, she called him over and then presented herself to him, i've heard of receptive females but surly none this "easy" lol. The male did not recipricate the drumming nor did he do anything else that i would consider a courtship ritual, it appears his mere presence was enough for the female to come out and offer herself on a plate.
I would also like to take this oppertunity to ask any of you who have had previous experience with breeding this species or have observed them and their rituals in the wild what to expect now, How long after the mating (if it was successful) before an eggsac will be produced and how long after eggsac production will spiderlings emerge. Would you advise me to pull the sac or leave it with mum?
anything you can offer about post mating conditioning and time scales would be very much appreciated.
Comment