Trip down memory lane

[Chris]

Wow... I had forgotten how fascinating true spiders are! I have been so wrapped up in Tarantulas the past few years that I had neglected my childhood passion... spiders!

I was called by a local woman who had got some flowers from Florida. In them she found a good sized (inch and a half legspan) black and yellow beauty! She called the local pet shop and they passed her on to be (I am the spider-man around here!)

I went to her place to pick it up. What I found was something I had never seen before... it was surely not from around here! She is a stunningly beautiful Black yellow and silver spider that had already set up a gorgeous web inside her container. I mean this was the prettiest spider I have ever seen!

I knew by the body structure that this was an orb weaver... so I whipped out my trusty spider book and found a perfect match! She is a Black and Yellow Argiope (Argiope aurantia)

It was like going back to old school for me to watch a true spider eat. I am so used to tarantula ambush attacks that it was a nice change to watch the skill and finesse of a spider on a web. She felt the vibes... then stormed down to bite the cricket and wrap it up in a silk coccoon. This was just like the old days when I would toss bugs into the webs of garden spiders in the back yard and watch for hours.

Just thought I would share my trip down memory lane with you all.

[Tarantula Lover]

even though i am 12, i love true spiders and tarantulas, i always go and catch a wolfy, or an S. Matus, garden spiders, and grass spiders, i still go aroind my backyard with my brother david and we catch crickets and grasshoppers, then find a web, and drop the cricket/grasshopper and wait for a spider to come down to eat, it is real fun to watch!
James Kakos

[Lycanthrope]

I can relate to you there, I have many memories as a child here in Fl., after rainy periods collecting all the baby frogs and tossing them into Golden silk spiders' webs, and just watching the run about, wrapping thier gifts. We also have the magnificent regal jumping spider here, of which im always sure to have a specimen or two. amazing to watch the little devils take crickets of their own size or larger with no problem whatsoever.

[Alex S.]

Yeah, the true spiders are great, especially the web-construsting families. I never get bord of watching my nearly 2" leg span Latrodectus geometricus take down small tree frogs or my L. hesperus take down crickets larger than her. Another awesome spider family is the ogre-face or net catching spiders (Dinopidae), who make a perfectly square net-like web on their front and middle pair of legs and wait for unsuspecting insects to walk by and be caught. And of course we cant forget about the Orb-webs, just an overall amazing family, with giant tropical species like Nephila maculata or N. madagascarensis catching small birds and bats.

Alex S.

[MrT]

I only have one True Spider, And I dont even know what it is.
I found it strolling across my living room floor. Put in a small petpal and Its been 3 months now.

Its webbed up everything in there, eats crics after webbing them And seems very happy.. It about 1 1/4" and velvet black.

Ernie

[Arachniphile]

I have more true spiders in my collection then Ts. My personal favorites are the Funnel Weavers (Tegenaria). There are at least 7 different species that I have collected so far in an attempt to identify the infamous Hobo Spider (T. agrestis). I do find it odd that I have yet to collect a specimin of this species and they are supposed to be common in my area.

These spiders are easy to keep and really do well in captivity. They don't require any special heating and actually prefer a dry enviornment. They build some amazingly sized webs and will fill thier containers from end to end in no time at all. They are tiny terrors when it comes to prey and will tackle just about anything that hits thier web regardless of size. I tossed a large moth in with one of mine that was easily double the size of the spider. It was quite the struggle on both ends. The spider got on the moth's back and dug in. The moth was actually flying off with the spider on its back!! The spider's dragline was the only thing keeping them grounded. Keeping thier containers free of carcasses is difficult sometimes due to the amount of webbing that they do.

These spiders can commonly be found all throughout North America. If your into true spiders at all I highly encourage your to keep a few of these creatures. They are really fun to watch. If you don't have any that you can find in your area I have about 100 of em in my back yard and would be happy to collect you a few. You pay shipping of course...

[galeogirl]

I grew up on a farm and my dad used to pay me a penny each to catch craneflies and go feed them to the spiders around the barn (mostly orb weavers). I always loved watching them attack and web up prey that was a great deal larger than they were.

Now we have some funnel web spiders on the basement stairs and two orb weavers in the pantry. I drop the occasional buffalo worm or roach nymph into their webs to make sure they stick around.

[JacenBeers]

I love watching true spiders eat ten times more than watching tarantulas. The most entertaining feeding experience I have ever seen was when i let a local garden spider live with a black widow of mine. The garden spider was supposed to be food. Instead the widow became food for the farden spider. I was impressed.