Microhexura idahoana adult female with eggsac- The Smallest Mygalomorph [video]

TheTyro

Arachnobaron
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Yesterday, I spent the whole day on a collecting trip with Rod Crawford, the Arachnologist who works at The Burke Museum in Seattle, and Laurel! I think she also works at the museum or is a friend of his, she knew a lot about plants so probably the museum!

We collected tons of spiders, all of which were new to me! He had found two other Microhexura specimens, so I asked him if I could keep this one, and he said sure! Maybe it's because I found him a huge male Antrodiaetus occultus. :D I had a ton of fun exploring Sun Top, WA.

Anyways, this female is absolutely tiny and adorable. By the way, the green thing in the video is your average sized plastic craft bead.

[YOUTUBE]bUyQsYA3OT8[/YOUTUBE]

There is another species of Microhexura that lives in North Carolina, I think he said..and they are endangered. M.idahoana are found in Washington State, Oregon and Idaho. I found her underneath a chunk of moist wood, clinging to the sac.
 
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Terry D

Arachnodemon
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Tyro, That's one tiny Myg! So what do you plan on feeding the slings?
Nice accompanying instrumental as well! :clap:

Terry
 

TheTyro

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Tyro, That's one tiny Myg! So what do you plan on feeding the slings?
Nice accompanying instrumental as well! :clap:

Terry
I'm thinking I'll do my best with springtails, or crushed pinheads. I was wondering about that though, anyone else have any ideas of something common and tiny? I may ask Rod about it again, because he knew people who had reared them. No idea if they had any luck though!

And she sure is tiny haha, she's got to be about 4-5mm max in body size.
 

Terry D

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Tyro. Good luck with it. From reading some of you're other threads I see you're determined and I bet you'll work it out. I've never dealt with any fossorials or obligate burrowers but all my terrestrials accepted the pre-killed route at some stage in life. That might be the way to go.

:)

Terry
 

TheTyro

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Thanks Terry D! I'll definitely give it my best. Haha. I've definitely learned a TON about spiderling rearing, especially recently...with my swarm of Phidippus audax slings. About 600 of them. AHHHH.
 

Terry D

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Tyro, I'll bet you have! Everytime I see a P audax it brings to memory those threads eg. "If you could have a 3' T blondi ......?" I always say to myself "Well now, a 3' P audax would be the ....!" {D

This also reminds me. Late Aug thru Sep. seems to be the primetime for trues in general in our area. It has been a good late season of rainfall. I'm stoked at the thought of what might show up!

:)

Terry
 

cacoseraph

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that's awesome! i love the stuff that really gives a good idea of scale!

as for feeding very small bugs i always try to get them to take prekilled stuff. it allows for you to go with larger prey items less often. i have a ~2-3mmDLS Megahexura fulva (baby) that i feed pieces of 2 wk cricket to. you have to watch for uneaten stuff going bad, though. this has worked for that little Megahex, a slightly larger Apomastus i found, and slightly smaller (i think, i don't remember exactly how small they were now) Calisoga babies. it doesn't really work with mygs that you let build trapdoors... those are something you might very well need live little feeders, no cheating

i'm on the look out for Hexurella rupicola, that should be around that length, maybe a smidge bigger. i have a small number of the M. fulva i am trying to get a breeding group out of, now... M. fulva are comparative giants, though... like 1cm BL at maturity =P

these are Mecicobothriidae or Dipluridae, both of which are sheet web/funnel web type spiders. i think that should mean the spiders will take little bits of prekilled and butchered crickets.


edit:
also do you have any idea about eggsac counts? Hexurella is noted for 4,4,6,7 in one paper... Megahexura is like 80. 'ella makes a lenticular and Mega' makes a "normal" spherical

edit2:
also, Megahexura surprised me with how fast its metabolism was. they starve/dehydrate to death about 5 times faster than equivalent sized Aphonopelma spiderlings. i think yours might have a bit slower metabolism cuz they are from colder climes, but they might still be pretty quick. i also don't let them get anywhere near as dry as equivalent sized Calisoga or Aphonopelma, for death reasons

have you seen any good pdfs or whatnot on them? i'd love to see some links if so. if i remember i might poke around and see what i can turn up. i am curious about the egg count and their life expectancy.

i think female M. fulva are in the 3-5 year range and very possibly could be mature in 1 year. they are scary fast compared to the bigger mygs!


edit3:
i've been googling. first hits are your stuff. typically this is a bad sign. i did find a french page that mentions they dry out pretty easily, though http://translate.google.com/transla...?q=microhexura+idahoana&num=50&hl=en&safe=off
 
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cacoseraph

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ah, this is what you need

http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/1057/1/B170a01.pdf

it is a 60+MB pdf that has a 15 page paper by F. Coyle about the Microhexura genus :)

species descriptions, tons of materials examined. i love finding those kind of things :)


19 eggs. looks like a single sac count, though. so who knows what the range and what not is. Microhexura montivaga is the other species and it is a bit smaller and has more like 7-10 eggs per sac

it's a sweet sweet paper :)

btw, i didn't find that through googling. i checked out platnick's
http://research.amnh.org/oonopidae/catalog/

it is a danged online bibliography with links to pdfs sometimes. it is where i have found papers on goofy stuff that i couldn't google to save my life :)
 
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