L. pallidus building a retreat

[Glen Southern]

Here's a few shots of a newly matured Female L. pallidus just after she created a really cool little house. She settled into a new container, a tall, airy pasta jar, and after devouring a locust she set about adding all sorts of debri to her abode. I added grass seeds and twigs at the bottom of the jar and she picked them up and weaved the structure together. The result in the jar looked just like the retreats I have see Araneus quadratus creating in grass meadows. I wasn't aware that Latrodectus did this.

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection004.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection005.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection006.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection007.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection008.jpg

and a little project I'm working on....

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus/L.pallidus_TS_LPD_12.jpg

[swatc1h]

nice colormorph.

[Splintercell]

I am speachless

:clap:

Great Glen:worship:

[Gigas]

Gorgeous pics Glen, I thought you were going to stick these in the custom enclosures?

[Mechanical-Mind]

I am speachless

:clap:

Great Glen:worship:

I'm with Tom on this one.

Great stuff,
-Matt

[Glen Southern]

Hi gigus,

I will be using the new enclosures but I can't get the heating correct day and night. The glass jars work well in my main spider cupboard. I am able to maintain a stead 80 degrees (give or take) and the humidity is controlled in each container. My studio is a converted garage so the temperature swing wildly.

It is not economical to keep such a huge room at 80 (plus I hate that warm) so I am cooking up a new idea......(i'll take some shots and show ya...)


BRB...

[Glen Southern]

This is where I keep the bulk of stuff. It's heated and controlled with a Habistat 2ft tube, Thermostat and a Mini fan to get some air movement. I also have to have some mats in there for really cold days. The US west coaster will laugh at what we have to do to keep our little buddies warm..lol

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/arachnid_setups/room001.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/arachnid_setups/room002.jpg

My latro tank are now all stackable. I have them seated on a small cupbaod. I'm adding a 2ft tube to the inside of the cupboard and drilling holes in the top to allow heat to escape up into the Latro-towers as I now call then. I used loads of fine mesh to help facilitate this.

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/arachnid_setups/room003.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/arachnid_setups/room004.jpg

Heres the other side of my room. Full of boys toys and art stuff.

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/arachnid_setups/room005.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/arachnid_setups/room006.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/arachnid_setups/room007.jpg


See, loads of room for more SPIDIES...lol

[Gigas]

Likin the box with the skull and cross bones on it!

[Glen Southern]

I keep Pirata piraticus in there...not.....lol

[RodG]

Can you come to the US and organize my collection:D Fantastic stuff Glen,
please keep these amazing photos coming!!!:clap:

[LongDucDong]

WOWOWOWOW! Great post! And nice setup you have there! One of the best Ive seen! :) Where are you from GS?

[Glen Southern]

RodG: Yeah I'll come. You pay the air fare mate and I'll be there promptly..lol. I was over in LA in January on busniess but never got to hunt out any arachnids. All work no play :(

LongDucDong: I am currently in North Cheshire in the UK. Although it's not my sole income I sit in my room and draw/paint/model as the whim takes me. I am always battling the problem of how to stop my spider collection growing. I have a really bad problem in that once I get an idea in my head it becomes all consuming. Then I decided I hate it and it all turns sour (as does my art). So, I try to limit myself to one large cupboard of archanids and I add/remove from the collection as needed. The BEST thing in my arsenal of gadgets is that Binocular (Trinocular) Microscope. As soon as I got that my whole knowlege of the little beasties exploded. I keep a X20 objective on it for daily use and I have upto x80 which helps count hairs on slings legs. Awesome quality and I picked it up off ebay.

[Glen Southern]

I am new to keeping L. pallidus and this adult female is very very docile all day long. It is hard to get any response from her during daylight hours.

However, I would NOT stick my finger in her tank after 9.00pm!! This is a selection of of 150 shots taken at about 1.00am. The locust was introduced at about 9.00 pm and she made no movement at all whilst the lights were on. I left the room in darkness at 11.30pm and came back a little later....

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection009.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection010.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection011.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection012.jpg

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus_selection013.jpg

This morning, there is a thin husk of locust hung in the web. I was expectung her to kick it out but no sign of that yet. She is safely back inside her neat little nest that she constructed, docile once again with a full tummy!


G

[buthus]

Great images!



Did your studio come furnished with a girlfriend? Mine did, but she stopped hanging out in it once I moved in. :D

[Glen Southern]

It came furnished with a very tolerant wife. In fact, I bought the house with the conversion in mind. I flew Pam off to Bulgaria for two weeks and paid some dudes to convert it for me in our absence.

She is a pain now as she has fallen in love with my Imac and hogs the best seat in the place. I bought her a laptop to try and get her out of here but any Imac user will tell you how it can become a love affair.

But, she puts up with me living in here most of my waking hours when I'm not at work, never moans about the arachnids that cluster the place (I'm alergic to anything with fur so she understands a little) and very occasionally brings a cup of tea or a beer through from the kitchen. Its a cool room actually as it is just off the utility room so it sort of has it's own sink just outside: great for washing tanks and jars out without entering the kitchen proper.

The first two wives were never this tolerant!!.....lol

[Glen Southern]

http://www.southerngfx.co.uk/arachnid/true_spiders_world/L.pallidus/L.pallidus001.jpg

[RodG]

AMAZING PHOTOS GLEN:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

[Crotalus]

Very good photos!
Nice spider aswell!

[buthus]

Digging up another old thread here because I am in the middle of changing my "hobby" room (more like the dog house out back) to more of a usable studio space ...and for my lovely pets of course. Here is a pic(really bad composite) of what it looked like up to about 6 months ago.

http://www.moflash.net/stuff/img/computers/room_all.jpg

When I get everything done, Ill take some new pics. The computer stuff has been put in storage and will be slowly rumaged through to be sold, trashed or given away. I had some spiders and a couple scorps at the time of this pic, but the only animals seen here is a bit of my rat shelves ...had a family of hairless rats (they since all have passed on and I miss their company) ...mom, 3 girls and 4 crazy boyz.
Glen, I envy your neatness and scientific purity. If I could just be a left brainer for 8 hours a week, I could organize and anylize my insanity and come up with some sort of conclusion. :D Yet, even then my room would never be as neat and organized as yours ...I guess my natural habitat is a much more raw... "grungy" environment. :D