Um...Jackuul?

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Postby Jackuul » July 19th, 2009, 7:21 pm

Well, with rosies, their venom is pretty much impotent on humans, so even if you did get tagged by a rosie on a really bad day (honestly, you would have to be messing with it) it is unlikely to send you to the hospital room.

Also, unlike sharks, tarantulas and jumping spiders cannot eat you.
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Postby pitbullmamaliz » July 19th, 2009, 7:39 pm

Jackuul wrote:Also, unlike sharks, tarantulas and jumping spiders cannot eat you.


Says you.
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Postby Jackuul » July 19th, 2009, 7:54 pm

Image

This is what an Aphonopelma Sp (meaning not quite sure the exact species). "Flagstaff Orange" looks like. They're a fairly docile, but skittish (afraid of you) spider that lives in Arizona. One of the few that do live in the U.S. they are very pretty as adults - as you can see it has a bald patch on its butt from kicking hairs from either encounters with something it thought was a threat, or from marking around its burrow to deter possible threats. When they molt, they get all fresh hairs.

This spider is obese - and it is likely a female (as far as what they identified it as, however one cannot be sure without the ventral AND molt methods of sexing).

Hairs not only act as a deterrent in the case of their abdominal hair, but as a sensory organ. Imagine you're covered in a shell - how would you be able to feel outside of it? Hairs. That's why they are covered in them - they can sense air movement, vibrations from sound or thumping on the ground, and also moisture (on their feet). They have excellent senses when it comes to their ability to feel - but eyesight is rudimentary at best for them, with it being blurry. They do have multiple eyes, but mostly for light detection. Although "blind" visually, they can "see" sound, as in where a cricket has just landed. They make Daredevil look like a putz... and spiderman a joke.

They grow really slow, and the females live a long time (past 25 is likely) while males do not live past maturity. Every year when people see the "migrating tarantulas" you are actually watching males on their death march, trying to find females desperately before it is too late and they are eaten, or die from being too old (~90% are eaten). Females seldom leave their burrows except at night for food, and they usually do not go far (mostly waiting for something to walk by). Many males become meals if they do not run fast enough (the faster the male, the more females he can reproduce with).
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Postby pitbullmamaliz » July 19th, 2009, 8:10 pm

How do you know she is obese? I guess I never thought that insects/arachnids could become obese.

I love learning all this stuff! I remember when Christine first joined she taught us all about turtles (who knew they were so hard to take care???) and now we're learning about spiders. Very cool. :)
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Postby Jackuul » July 19th, 2009, 8:20 pm

Well, the size of the abdomen is a bit larger than desired. Basically spiders eat, and store fat in their abdomens for a molt. What happens though, is some can get really fat. This one is not nearly as fat as some others that I have seen, but it certainly has a big butt - which isn't necessarily a good thing. If she were to fall from just a few inches she could burst like an egg, and is at risk of other ruptures and issues. A general rule of thumb I have learned is to keep the opisthosoma (or abdomen) at around 1.5 times the size of the prosoma (cephalothorax/the front segment where the legs and eyes are) as that leaves it more "leg" behind the abdomen. Example: if the front portion is 1 inch long, the back portion can be 1.5 inches long, however there is also width to be accounted for. Generally that will also extend the life of the spider, as over-feeding or power-feeding may make it grow larger faster, and molt more, but generally will shorten the life by having go through those molts exceptionally fast.

If you have seen wolf spiders or those house spiders that look like them before, you will notice most are mature males by the pedipalps (their front little leg-like appendages that they use more like arms than legs) having "clubs" on the end (it's for mating) have very tiny abdomens - sometimes smaller than their prosoma. That's because they can survive on very low nutrition diets.

Tarantulas are pampered (like western cultured humans) - ones in the wild (even females) are likely to have abdomens the same size, or sometimes even smaller than their prosoma.
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Postby iluvk9 » July 19th, 2009, 9:31 pm

Just seeing them makes me itch. :bs:
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Postby BullyLady » July 19th, 2009, 10:21 pm

This thread is absolutely fascinating! Jackuul thank you for the information!
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Postby TheRedQueen » July 19th, 2009, 10:35 pm

Poop slinging spiders, obese spiders...wow...it's a whole world I never knew existed! :dance:

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Postby Jackuul » July 19th, 2009, 10:59 pm

Crickets are common feeders, but can be a risk if they are infected with nematodes (fatal). Roaches are a better option, honestly. There's a lot of common misinformation about roaches and revulsion from stereotyping them (like spiders and bully breeds - lawl) but they're actually a lot cleaner than the common cricket because of their grooming habits, and their exteriors repel germs.

I've seen it said (even in Wikipedia, where there is a ton of incorrect info about keeping tarantulas as well) that roaches can spread germs. Well, if they have just walked through poop and other unsanitary things yes. But so can a child (they're worse). In actuality captive bred roaches are cleaner and more sanitary than crickets, and there are many species that cannot climb glass at all, or fly.

So, while crickets are okay, they are a moderate risk if you have a favorite spider - roaches, although "icky" (thanks stereotyping and childhood miss-education!) are a wonderful option as their size allows for less frequent feeding, they do not carry the nematodes that can (and will 100% of the time if the cricket is infected) kill a spider, and they don't smell (crickets stink).
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Postby pocketpit » July 20th, 2009, 1:43 am

Cool spider information, thanks for sharing! I don't fear spiders but I don't especially enjoy the ones that try to take over my house either. We have lots of giant housespiders or one of the similar looking species.
I have long been facinated by "pet spiders" but don't think I could handle keeping one simply because I hate the stuff they eat. It's why I don't have geckos or other such creatures either.
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Postby Jackuul » July 20th, 2009, 1:58 am

Well, if you don't like what they eat - doesn't it make it more gratifying to watch them eat? They hunt the stuff down like little professional hitmen.

However you can never feed a tarantula any wild caught food - has to be captive bred or you risk poisoning it (pesticides and such).
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Postby iluvk9 » July 20th, 2009, 6:21 am

I think we should all join your forum and annoy you there. 8)
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Postby pocketpit » July 20th, 2009, 1:34 pm

Well, if you don't like what they eat - doesn't it make it more gratifying to watch them eat? They hunt the stuff down like little professional hitmen.


I do actually find this part very facinating to watch actually :D
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Postby Jackuul » July 20th, 2009, 5:22 pm

iluvk9 wrote:I think we should all join your forum and annoy you there. 8)


lol, I just realized I have had more questions and answers about spiders here than on my own site in the past month.
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Postby iluvk9 » July 21st, 2009, 3:47 pm

Maybe because your members "know" stuff about spiders and that is why they joined. Here, not so much. :ROFL2:
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Postby Jackuul » July 21st, 2009, 4:02 pm

Actually its because no one has really joined, nor have they asked questions : /
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Postby Jackuul » July 24th, 2009, 1:51 am

Since one of my rosies looks like she is getting ready to "change" or rather, discard her old exoskeleton and molt into the new one - here is what it looks like in a time lapse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4_tC-Z_AU

It can actually take around 8 hours to a whole day depending on conditions. I think when Ms. Fuzzy is done molting she'll be prettier than she is now (a bit rough around the edges, and she's not quite an adult yet, so she may gain up to a half inch in size when she does molt).

Also, those spasms at the end are not an indication of distress - that is how they stretch their legs, plus at a sped up viewing time a person stretching would look like they were having seizures too.
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Postby BigDogBuford » July 24th, 2009, 5:57 am

The movie Wall-E made me like roaches a lot more!
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Postby iluvk9 » July 24th, 2009, 6:29 am

Holy Crap! That was some video! :shock:
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Postby pitbullmamaliz » July 24th, 2009, 5:28 pm

That was neat!
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