Mimetidae

[buthus]

First some pic reposts to get the subject a rollin'.
This is the pirate spider I found in the "wastelands" (cacoseraph's backyard hunt :Rockon: )



Found it sucking away at this ...I will guess a male L.hesperus. She was still feeding on it when I got her home.






And here are the mystery sacs we found ...they were very common out there.


One of these sacs was already hatched and the other hatched a couple of days ago. Slings are beyond tiny and I had a hell of a time trying to transfer them to a more observable container. Not sure how many I got transfered or how many are running round my room. I will guess that the sac had 8...maybe 12 slings, but they are so small its easy to miss them.



Ok.. been keeping the pirate in a small "enclosure" with some root base. No significant webbing ...just hung around waiting for something. Attempted to feed her the usual feeders and a couple spiders, but no go.
But... she produced a sac! Maybe the wastelands mystery sacs are not so much a mystery anymore?





Now she really needed to eat. I placed a S.grossa into a plastic box and let it web up a bit for a day. Not much webbbing but enough (hopefully) for the pirate to do her stuff.



Left the box on my photoshoot stand and today when looking at it from a distance, I saw what looked like the grossa eating the Mimetidae, but actually turns out everything went as planned. ance:


Ok... time for a real photoshoot. Hopefully I will get to it very soon... hate to loose the pirate to old age before I can have fun.
I think latrodectus should be her next potential victim.


I also need to figure out what to feed these slings. They are tiny.. half the size of the smallest of fruitflies. Mites and spider slings may very well be what they normally feed on, but who knows. ?

[Cheshire]

Judging by that last picture, I'd say friut flies would be OK.

A spider that soley eats spiders...that's really cool. Something I've yet to see even on these boards.

Let us know how that sack goes and how rearing the slings goes. I'd really like one or two

[8+)]

Originally Posted by Cheshire

Judging by that last picture, I'd say friut flies would be OK.

Except for that they might only eat other spiders, even as slings.

[Cheshire]

Originally Posted by 8+)

Except for that they might only eat other spiders, even as slings.

Yeah, but he said that the spider also refused other spiders so maybe she wasn't hungry or was fasting just prior to an eggsack.

Who knows?

[8+)]

Yeah, it will be fun finding out! I hope I get some of these.

[galeogirl]

I suppose you could let the babies cannibalize for awhile before separating them out.

[Steven Gielis]

Nice pictures!
Has anybody kept Portia jumping spiders before?
Also very smart spidereaters!!!

[xgrafcorex]

thanks for sharing your find. those sacs look pretty cool.

Originally Posted by Steven Gielis

Nice pictures!
Has anybody kept Portia jumping spiders before?
Also very smart spidereaters!!!

i wish! i haven't seen any for sale since i knew what they were and wanted to add one to my collection.

[Vys]

Originally Posted by Steven Gielis

Nice pictures!
Has anybody kept Portia jumping spiders before?
Also very smart spidereaters!!!

And Mimetidae-eaters

That Mim looks very neat!

[buthus]

Sorry, let this thread slide by. Thanks for the interest. I think it has potential as a true worth keeping ...but for those special events only, otherwise it prefers to live its life balled up in a nice safe place.

No substantial new info to give regarding the slings and their basic needs. Trying a few things and waiting to see some sort of results ...like being able to actually see the slings would be a good start.

[cacoseraph]

mystery solved. i always liked those crazy orange eggsacs

good work man!

[Cheshire]

How did the slings do?