L. megatheloides breeding attempt

[garlicpickle]

I attempted to pair my female with James' male tonight. On introducing the male to the female's tank, he sat immobile on her web for around 20 minutes. I decided it was probably too bright, so put the lid loosely over the tank and moved it to a dark room.
I went away for around 3 minutes (call of nature!), upon returning, the female was at the entrance to her funnel and the male in the bottom corner of the tank. I observed the female tapping her web vigorously a few times with little or no response from the male.
A few minutes later the female disappeared back down her funnel where she has since remained. The male is still in the bottom corner of the tank.
I do not know if they mated during my few minutes' absence or whether she simply chased him off. I have been told that this species is quite easy to breed and that the females are not aggressive towards the males.


the female's funnel entrance


the male

[PhilR]

Gotta love those spinnerets

Good luck with them

[Pete Mosca]

Gotta love those spinnerets

LOL; It looks like it's flicking the "V" as it walks away.

Some lovely webbing too.
Do you know what the life expectance of them is?

[garlicpickle]

Hi Pete, I've been asked this by quite a lot of people and can only repeat what I was told by Bastian Drolshagen. His site www.dipluridae.de seems to be about the only resource available.

He said that a female will live for a couple of years after attaining adult size, I think my girl grew a little bit when she moulted so I'm guessing she's adult now.

The male seemed quite relieved to be removed from her tank as he was trying to make himself as small as possible in the corner! I'll have another go at introducing them in a few days (making sure I don't need to answer any calls of nature) and observe what happens.

I will know one way or the other fairly soon as apparently sacs are laid within 4-6 weeks of mating.

[Pete Mosca]

Thanks for that link. It has been a nice read.
Good luck with the pairing, I look forward to seeing photos of the egg sack.

[Paradox]

Lisa, if you don't mind me asking, are these rare and/or particularly expensive?

I never really say this about trues but they are absolutely gorgeous, and the webbing rivals even my heavy webber T's... who by the way fail miserably at living up to their names lol. I'm not sure if I'd fancy a sling, but maybe a SA..

[Paradox]

I've just noticed their not Trueys, sorry. I'm not really good with the class of any other spiders than T's I'm afraid x

[garlicpickle]

Hi Jess, so far they are not readily available in this country. The only people I've seen with slings are Martin Goss and Steve at TarantulaBarn, who were asking £12 a sling, which I thought was a bit steep! But it's heavy webbing you want, these are the champions.

However, my girl cost me I think 20 euros as a sub adult, and he threw in a free 3/4i sling too which unfortunately didn't survive. I think it got too dry, they need a fair amount of humidity. She came from Jorg Bernhardt in Germany. He sells quite a lot of trues and other mygalomorphs like trapdoor spiders.

Here you go, 22e for an adult female and 15e for an unsexed sub adult
http://www.schaben-spinnen.de/Content/shop.php?cat=33

P&P is from £10-£15 depending on whether you want insurance. He speaks quite good English and I found him very helpful.

There's also a similar but smaller species called Linothele fallax, which Jorg sometimes has in stock.

[garlicpickle]

I tried introducing the male again 2 days after the first attempt. He made a half hearted attempt at tapping on her web but she didn't respond. He wandered round on her web for a while still with no response from her, so I removed him. After talking with James, we decided that I would leave the male in with the female for a couple of days. I put his container inside her tank with the lid off, so he could come out when he wanted and also had a retreat he could use.

He was still in his container this morning when I checked. I decided I would remove him this evening, but unfortunately all that remained of him in the container was one leg. I guess she must have gone into his container and eaten him.

This is something of a surprise and a disappointment, as I'd been told they were easy to breed and the females did not demonstrate aggression towards the males.

I can only hope that her eating him will be a prelude to a successful eggsac. I will know one way or the other fairly soon as the period from mating to sac production is only 4-6 weeks in this species.

[Chris Smallman]

Thats so sad Lisa.

All he was waiting for was some nookie and instad he got munched

Females can be.....better not say

As you say maybe he did his thing before he was a late night snack. Hope so

CJ.

[Pete Mosca]

Oh what a shame.
I hope he managed to erm....ahem....anyway I hope it's good news in a few weeks.
I can't wait to see what type of webbing she will do (if any) for the sack.

[garlicpickle]

About 4 days ago she started making alterations to her web. She has ripped out one of the funnels and made a kind of flat clearing which hopefully is the precursor to laying a sac. She also looks rather fat, so fingers crossed

[un4given]

Good signals Lisa

[garlicpickle]

She laid her sac yesterday From what I can see, it's not like a tarantula sac. She ripped out some of her tunnels to make a flat place in her web, laid the eggs on that and webbed over the top of them. So the sac is part of her web and not separate from it.

Incubation time is about 4 weeks, so much quicker than tarantulas. I'm not sure how to get the sac out when the time comes. It would have to be cut out of her web. I'm tempted to let mum hatch the slings herself and when they have emerged, remove mum, dump the whole web into the bath tub and pick through it to find the slings. Apparently mum does not kill prey for the spiderlings in this species and they will therefore soon start to eat each other if not separated.

[Paradox]

Wooo excellent news Lisa! Especially nice to find a sac I bet seeing as the poor male got munched

Best of luck with the slings! x