Steatoda grossa group

[buthus]

Steatoda grossa tend to stick together like a mafia family ..at least seems so when the conditions allow for it. Obviously, prey must be plentiful, there needs to be some structural delineation in their living space, warmth, h2o(yet very little is needed..but it has to be there) ..etc, etc.

I collected a couple smaller ..1st to 3rd instar slings... but didnt get them in the pics ...bummer.
http://www.moflash.net/misc/img/spiders/Sg_compostgroup_01.jpg

The teen-age kids ... an immature male, a mature male(maybe not part of the family), freshly molted sweet 16 and an immature female.
http://www.moflash.net/misc/img/spiders/Sg_compostgroup_02.jpg

Fresh molt ...she was really weak. Love how blue grossa are right after they molt.
http://www.moflash.net/misc/img/spiders/Sg_cmpstgrp_fem-frshmolt_00.jpg

The big mature male...
http://www.moflash.net/misc/img/spiders/Sg_cmpstgrp_male_00.jpg

Head (current) of the household...
http://www.moflash.net/misc/img/spiders/Sg_cmpstgrp_queen_00.jpg


This group I collect from under a plastic garbage can that I have been composting in. Wood lice are the constant food source (if at all needed) with cricks, pedes, wigs and other spiders constantly taking shelter within the space also. Two other specie of spiders were living directly with the grossa family... Pholcus phalangioides and those tiny "wall spiders" (i have an id somewhere here..but lazy). Prey carcasses were NOT to be found. This tells me that the breakdown/cleaning cycle is really quick. Moisture keeps the spent prey soft..wigs, wood lice, rollys, cricks all take care of the rest. IMO... this quick breakdown (and perpetual food baiting) allows grossa groups to live under tight, moist(ish) structure. In dry spaces, I usually find the large fem alone with only slings and some juvs. Males dont stick round cause they dont have the lifespan to wait for the slings to sexually mature and as for big mommy...she most likely will not accept any more callers.
My goal now with grossa and other Steatoda is to keep them in self cycling groups. Ive done this in smaller dry enclosures, but was not able to get a diverse group ...due to obvious reasons.

[Widowman10]

with the tons of S. borealis i find here in CO, i'll find HUGE groups all living in VERY close proximity to one another. they are practically on top of one another, living in the tightest of quarters. i will find (in these groups) MFs, MMs, IFs, and IMs. guess there's enough food, but i'll have to take some pics when summer hits again. sure surprised me to see them all together. cool pics and everything, as usual. thanks buthus.

[jsloan]

That's a nice group of spiders you've found there! S. grossa can be very interesting. I'm envious. :) They aren't around where I live now, but years ago I kept some in Corvallis Oregon. I noticed that adult males were tolerated in the webs of both adult and penultimate-instar females (I blew on the web that contained the male and penultimate female, and they both ran and hid in the web's retreat area. It was the female's web). On the other hand, I tried putting a penultimate female into the web of an adult female. The adult promptly attacked and ate it.

Anyway, at the time I made some notes on the mating process of these spiders. I'm editing them now and hope to have them online before the end of the month. If you want, I can let you know when they're up.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch the Latrodectus video you posted, as I'm on dialup. I managed to see the first 30 seconds or so, but even that little bit took 30 minutes to download.