Communal Jumping spiders

Today I have started a second communal jumping spider Jar. [about one gallon] I put a piece of newspaper on the bottum. and a few sticks in the middle then add about 3-10 jumping spiders. My first on had no canabilism and I hope this does just as well! Their various species sizes and sexes and they do very well and are very intresting.. Will post pix when I get a chance
So far only three occupy this jar and are settling in.
I will continue to post posts on it to keep it updated.
So far two females of the same species-raction to each other. one usualy just walks off..
A male unknown if its the same species as the male.. but it has fantastic red eyes

sounds cool i'll be waiting for those pics

how much they eat?

About a fly a day until their bloated and jsut sit around lol.
Its the end of the day. They've made their nightly hammacks to sleep in and the now total of 6 are relaxing and chilling in the dark no cannabilism.. it got close a few times but they worked it out. no one has eaten yet andm y known breeder spider although very thin from her last egg sac and bigger then most of the rest didn't even show intrest in the others. once I can get over to mizms house I will do a photo shoot >considering the decenty of my web cam...

good to hear things are going well, what would u feed the babies on? i don't think that their be able to take fruit flys would they?

I refer to hosue flys when I say flys. The species of successfully bred molt 3 or 4 times before the mother opens the cacoon in which she and hte young are imprisond.. once this happens their on their own. I usualy throw in a prekilled ant or fly in with them or if I actualy go and buy food from pet stores I give them pinhead crickets which they supprisingly takedown with ease.

They've now unbuncked and are once again jumping crawling around. I've noticed three seperate females from seperate species take down one of the larger flies 'together' One would lunge at it and pull it to the ground the other two that were watching would rush up and help hold it down.. after they feasted for awhile the main of the carcas was left to the largest of the females and the one who did the intial catch
Still no aggression seens and they motstly dont seem to mind themselves.. pondering adding more..

Well. The end of the day comes.. they've all eaten at least one house fly each. I've added another 'red eyed' male they seem to be going after the golden coloured females. still no signs of hostility or cannabilism soonthey wil lbe making new web hammacks or fidning the olds ones ot bunk it up for the night.

This is an interesting thread. I have kept jumping spiders off and on since I was a kid but never communally as you are doing. I am curious as to how this turns out. How many different species do you have together? Keep us posted on this.

I believe out of the seven I have around 4 species. Two large ones and two or three smaller ones

The two larger ones are completely seperate species as far as body shape size and colouration goes. they are both female and appear to be the queens of the jar as they are the oens that co-ordinate attacks on flys and other prey items and also the rest seem to back down to them. Facing each other they don't seem to really mind each other.

the littler ones consist of 3 females all of a golden colour. one of the three are darker then its other two golden sisters. I believe it to be a different spec or a colour morph

and hte final two the most intresting I believe are the two red eyed males who move in comical jerky movements and wave their hands in the air like they just dont care when any female comes into their vision. They seem to be closest with the golden females and don't payu much attention to the larger species leading me to believe that the golden spiders and the black and white striped red eyed males are the same species.
So far no signs of cannibilization or attakcs on one or another. disputes seem to be worked out by simply 'communicating' by waving their legs or palps. if this does not work usualy one of the large 'queens' approach and scare both of the contenders away.. but I believe this just simply to be a 'coincidence' considering the size of the jar and their roaming traits..

I jsut added some small moths and flies I found around hte porch light for them to consume in the morning.

Forgot to mention above: the smaller species of spiders, the golden fems and red eyed males all were cuahgt in leaf litter around a large ammassing of flies seeking the rotting figs under a tree. Where as the other two were cuaght in foliage and on a wall. [aboreal] however, The smaller onesh ave taken quiet apply to roaming the entire jar and not just staying on the bottum. I am contemplating removing the newspaper linning at the bottum and adding some soil and perhaps an entirly different species of spider.. perhaps a wolf..however. I don't think that wil lgo far until I have a) Accerted the communal jumpers for awhile or b) found a postive wolf candadate that I believe will fit into this communal experiment nicly.

Interesting experiment, though I would be reluctant to introduce a completely foreign species such as a Wolf Spider. They are tenecious predators after all and an ecological "enemy".

mactans said:

Interesting experiment, though I would be reluctant to introduce a completely foreign species such as a Wolf Spider. They are tenecious predators after all and an ecological "enemy".

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I agree here. You are likely to have trouble if you introduce a wolf spider. I am thinking about trying a jumping spider communal experiment myself. We have several different species around here that I can get.

Aye and it wil lbe successful. I am full aware of the risks of introducing a foreign species and probably will not commence with it but was intrested in observing what the results will be. I find jumping spiders to do very well in communal existances. I'm actualy hopping for some successful breeding in this tank. I have done this before and am yet to get any cannabilism. Even from jumping spiders placed with jumpers twice their size.

Another day begins they are starting to come out of their web hammacks to begin another day of interaction and exploration within the tank. I don't notice much activity yet but that will change shortly I believe. I think I shall add some more various branches and other objects to their space to appeal to a better hunting ground as I have witnesses many 'jump & miss's.

Another end of day

Two new arrivals entered the dome today. A juvie of the larger of the two queens and an even darker colour morph of the gold species [still trying to determine weather the three colourations are infact colour morphs and not seperate species.

Still no cannabilism even after a low amount of food was presented today due to lack of time to catch them such. so far so good and I see no reason for it to change.

Well, Cannibilism has occured on the newest female added. I believe my limit is at 7 spiders for this enclosure. It tried to start trouble with the others and I found it dead this morning. other then that things are going well. I plan on cleaning the cage soon and will give a more detialed result on each. as I am unsure of how many are in there as some of them I believe to be in hidding

Was the dead spider actually consumed by the others or did they just kill it?

Simply killed it. The abdomen wasn't even deflated. I believe it succumbed to mutlbe bits that I discovered upon its cephlathorax and legs. but there is partial hopes..I discovered an egg sac upon the lid of the container but, Its hammack was poorly made so heres hoping

They obviously need plenty of space and food in order to get along. This is really interesting because I didn't know they would be this tolerant of each other.
I would like to see some pix of your littlle experiment some time.

I jsut had a dealing with a W32 perite virus..[the evil] re did computer going to reinstall webcam and get hte best pix I can. and they can be very tolerant of each other and highly communitave by fake lunging jumps..[to tell them to back off] waving their arms saying [hey I'm here and I'm horny] moving their papls to show that their another spider and some other messages I haven't quite worked out yet but I ntoiced that when they work together to take soemthing big down [very rare but they do do it] alot of palp moving is involved varying from very rappid to slowly with an accoasional abdomen shaking which is apperently also involved in courtship. I have my doubts for the eggsac but I'm hopping.

ohhhh I love jumping spiders, second favorite type of spider. Bring on the pics!

lol I guess you missed the web cam part.. I'll prollyt on get blurrs of the spiders..