A few pics of my tarantula...

[Mike]

I took some more pics of my Pink Zebra Beauty. id give ya the scientific name but i havent really put any effort into remembering how to spell it. Anyways, i know i just posted a pic like a week ago but i needed something o do so i took pics. here ya go. I named it beauty. If it ends up being a guy, hes gonna have a pretty gay name. but oh well.

^you can kinda see some denser, darker hair growing in on the abdomen. Are those the Urticating hairs, or just more hair growing in?

^It has one heck of a burrow going. It goes down to the bottom, kinda zig-zags across the cage, then starts going to the right a little. There is a little chamber in the middle of the zig-zag section. Im impressed such a tiny spider made such a cool burrow. maybe ill get a pic of the whole burrow eventually.

^and finally, a feeding pic. I bought some crickets but my dog ate them, and petco ran out. so i thought id try meal worms. Beauty took two little meal worms. Grow spider! Grow!

and a question again for those of you who know...
how long until the spider starts making webs? and how does it make them? i seem to remember hearing that it has chemicals that it rubs together that make the web. just wanted to verify it.
Thanks for lookin! -Mike

[Aaron]

whoah, thats kinda cool. I've never been a tarantual person (seeing home alone as a kid scarred me) but I bet its cool to watch it feed. Does your camera let you take little videos??

[FourFeathers]

and a question again for those of you who know...
how long until the spider starts making webs? and how does it make them? i seem to remember hearing that it has chemicals that it rubs together that make the web. just wanted to verify it.
Thanks for lookin! -Mike

Hi Mike,

Eupalaestrus campestratus or "Pink Zebra Beauty" is not a species that really webs up anything. She may line the inside of her burrow some, but that's about it. This species is more of an ambush predator, waiting for something to walk past it while it's in it's burrow. She might put a few trip lines immediately oustside the entrance to her burrow to signal her that prey is up there. Otherwise, most webbing will either be a sign of preparing to molt or the "happy dance" that a lot of tarantulas do while they eat. They'll kind of "dance" around in a circle while eating, laying webbing down all around theselves. Some sort of victory dance or just glad to be eating. Otherwise it will lay a matt of web down to molt on. You can tell it's going to molt by a few indicators.

One sign of premolt is it starts refusing to eat.

2nd, it's opisthosoma (abdomen) will start to turn dark, really dark, and get a black spot on it that will continue to grow as the exoskeleton starts to seperate from the new exoskeleton underneath. The whole spider will start to get a really dingy appearance.

3rd, it will start to web up a lot of it's surrondings, preparing to lay a mat down to molt on. But if you allow it to burrow, you won't see it do this and you won't be able to remove the exoskeleton w/out damaging it's burrow. However, some species are very tidy housekeepers and will remove the exoskelton from the burrow after a molt. Some will, whenever they finish eating, will take the remains out of their burrow and stuff it in a corner of the enclosure, or in their water dish, presumably to get the scent of any hint that they're there as far away from the burrow as possible. Placing it in water would make it harder to detect.

If you want a species that webs up a lot, I'd recommend a Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens or a Pterinochilus murinus. The former is really a web head, and a real looker too. Not one I'd recommend holding though. It si a bit on the nervous side. It's an aggressive eater and very colorful too. Gets to about 5 or 6 inches.

Oh yea, almost forgot, they use their spinerettes to lay silk down. I'm not sure how it's made inside of them. Has to be some sort of chemical thing going on in there.

Good luck, and enjoy!

[Wizill]

i'm scared.

[FourFeathers]

No need to be scared Will. Tarantulas are beautiful.

And I'm sorry, but y'all got me all fired up again talking about tarantulas, had to show some pics...

Here are some pics of my E. campestratus
Her name is Charlene.




And here's the C. cyaneopubescens I was mentioning. This is a cool friggin' spider. Ya gotta get one of these


Ok, now back to our regulary scheduled broadcast about Ball Pythons.....

[FourFeathers]

Ok, trying again, this time with the pics on THIS server....

Here are some pics of my E. campestratus
Her name is Charlene.




And here's the C. cyaneopubescens I was mentioning. This is a cool friggin' spider. Ya gotta get one of these

[JLC]

I have been deathly afraid of spiders most of my life (from a really scarey childhood incident). When I had children, I worked hard to curb my reaction so I wouldn't pass on an unreasonable fear of them to the kids...and making that effort has helped me to actually not be quite so freaked out by them all the time. Still, I get the heebie-jeebies. It's a very odd mix of feelings...looking at these pictures you posted of truly beautiful and fascinating creatures...and yet it makes my skin crawl!

A few months ago, my daughter and I went to our first reptile expo. Of course there were a lot of invertabrates there, too. I screwed up my courage and asked a guy if I could hold one of his tarantulas. It was such a cool experience! It was so light I didn't even know it was there, but then felt its little "nails" sort of hanging on as it transfered from my hand back to its container. And I pet its abdomen...which surprised me with its texture. It didn't feel so much "hairy" as "feathery."

I don't think I'll ever be truly comfortable with arachnids of any sort...but I do have a much greater tolerance and deeper appreciation of them. Marcus...those are stunning pictures. I can't decide if I want to study them closer...or close the window on them! LOL Thanks for sharing those!!

Sorry for rambling...

[Wizill]

i'm still scared .

[JLC]

i'm still scared .

LOL :lol:

[RPlank]

Judy, I am kinda the same as you. I am fascinated by them, but really don't have any desire to hold them. That's the beauty of spiders and snakes....THEY DON'T CARE!!!!!
Marcus got me into the T's, and I recently got my 2nd one. I have no plans to handle either one (they are both not recommended to be handled anyways). I do love watching them, though.