Kukulcania hibernalis (Southern House Spider) Spiderling

[Ungoliant]

Location: Summerville, Dorchester County, South Carolina
Size: 2-3 mm (body length)
Age: 7 weeks

This seven-week-old Kukulcania hibernalis spiderling was born in captivity. You can already see some of the features that are typical of this species, such as its long palps.

Both the egg sac and the spiderlings were kept in conditioned space, so it may be smaller than it would have been if it had been raised outside. (This picture was taken several days after I separated the mother and released some of the spiderlings.)

[acbaker]

Hmmm... picture somehow failed to make it through.

[Ungoliant]

I guess it helps to make sure the thumbnail URL is correct!

[JasonNY]

So cute! So this was the chosen one, eh? Lucky little chap.

Did you breed a mae and female in captivity or did you catch a pregnant female?

[Ungoliant]

I actually kept a few more. (I tried to release them by leaving the jar outside under a house, but most of them stayed in the jar, so I put a few of the stragglers in the "nursery" jar.) I plan to release this particular spiderling with its siblings.

Both of the females that I captured were gravid. After settling in, each of them laid eggs. The younger brood is still with their mother.

[Itsy Bitsy]

I tried to release them by leaving the jar outside under a house

I like how you put them "under a house" ... not your house, but apparently someone else's and presumably without the inhabitants of said house's knowledge .

[JasonNY]

Ung,

How often do you feed the adult and how large of prey do you feed her?

[Ungoliant]

How often do you feed the adult and how large of prey do you feed her?

I feed them every week or two (depending on the size of the meal) and mist their webs with distilled water twice a week. I've been giving the adults bugs that I find around here, mostly small or medium smoky brown cockroaches that live under the scrap lead. The mothers share with the babies, but now that I've separated some of the babies, I'll have to feed them something of an appropriate size. Maybe I'll try catching some fruit flies for them.

[JasonNY]

Okay, I think I have been over-feeding my Amaurobius ferox...

Was feeding him once a week with crickets about the same size as him. Will definately put him on a more stringent diet.

~ Jason

[Ungoliant]

I like how you put them "under a house" ... not your house, but apparently someone else's and presumably without the inhabitants of said house's knowledge .

I'd release them here, but my husband is going to be spraying pesticide. The place they went is vacant and not regularly sprayed.