Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Spider Update

For those of you who can't get enough ...
It appears that we have a Wolf Spider. It also looks like it is a mommy. I am thinking of transferring it to another jar and watching it for awhile. After all, how can I kill a mommy and babies? Here are some links on Wolf Spiders and a few pictures I found on the Internet.

Wolf Spiders (takes a minute to load, but it is informative)
"The female wolf spider lays eggs in a large sac, which can be nearly as large as her own body. She attaches the egg sac to her body, and carries it until the eggs hatch. She then tears open the egg sac and the newly hatched spiders climb onto her back where they remain for up to a week."
"Such a high degree of parental care is relatively unusual among spiders". From this site.


Wolf Spiders 2 (brief description)

And last, but not least, this article on spider dating.

**Edited to add: Two more interesting facts from this site:

"Wolf spiders are ambush hunters. Instead of using a web to catch their prey, they sit and wait for their prey to walk by. They eat just about anything they can catch, including flies, mosquitoes, crickets, beetle larvae, and even other spiders. They bite their prey with sharp fangs and inject venom that liquefies the prey’s internal organs. The spider then sucks out the “soup.” "

"Wolf spiders live for about two years. When mature, males attract females by waving their front legs. After mating, the female wraps 50-200 eggs in a sac made of spider silk. She attaches the sac to the rear of her abdomen and carries it around for about a week. At the end of that time, she opens the sac and the spiderlings crawl onto her abdomen. They ride around with their mother for another week, until they are large enough to hunt for themselves".

15 comments:

Amanda said...

Gross...I don't think I can be your friend anymore.

Okay-maybe that's drastic...I just don't like spiders.

I do like you so I still wasnt to be your friend.

Jamie said...

Wow, I can't believe you took the time to find information on it. That's awesome!!

Lura said...

It's the miracle of modern technology! I added two more facts that I found interesting. It looks like we will have babies in a week if it lives that long. I need to find it some food.

SamandSawyersMom said...

hey, i am sooooooo interested. i didn't think you could post something more interesting than the food ingredients game...SM.

TAKE A PICTURE OF THE SPIDERS ON HER BACK!!!!!

Crystal said...

EEEEKKKKK!

Crystal said...

EEEEKKKKK!

SamandSawyersMom said...

How is "Godiva" this morning? I was worried about her. Did she make it through the night okay? Her babies can all be named "chocolate names" like morsel, nugget, kiss, nouget.....

Crystal said...

I want to name her Charlotte!

Jamie said...

My kids have now become very interested in the spider story as well. I read them all about the wolf spider and then they wanted me to show them tarantulas, so we did that too. Thanks for the arachna-study!!!

SamandSawyersMom said...

charoltte is dumb GODIVA is a name you can sink your teeth into

Char said...

I vote for Charlotte!

Lura said...

I like Godiva. Makes her sound like a godess or something. She's going to be the mother of multiples soon, we need to make her feel good! You better come up with 50-200 or so chocolate names for the babies.

Char said...

bon bon
hershey
resee cup
chip
syrup
mocha
latte
whitey
fluffy
butter
sauce
fudge
peanut
raisin
truffle

Lura said...

O'Henry
Kit Kat
Chunky
Twix

SamandSawyersMom said...

ahh you chose my name...is that the first compliment you have ever given me?


chocolate is great