GIANT LICHEN ORB WEAVER

[mantidsandgeckos]

You find so many beautiful spiders :lol: all we have here are fighting and jumping spider.

 

[bugzilla]

I'm not a big spider fan but you have some fantastic species there :wub:

How do you keep them and are they poisonous?

 

[ExoticOddities]

You find so many beautiful spiders :lol: all we have here are fighting and jumping spider.

Wow, I'd think you'd have a ton of different spider types in Malaysia!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'm not a big spider fan but you have some fantastic species there :wub: How do you keep them and are they poisonous?

I have been very lucky to have moved to a spot that is just teaming with wildlife, yes.

As for their being poisonous, only the Wandering Spider [or False Wolf Spider (Ctenus captiosus)], the Widow Spiders, and the Recluses are considered significantly venomous. The Fishing Spiders, Wolf Spiders, Jumping Spiders, Huntsman Spiders, etc. are all completely harmless.

And what I keep them in are simple plastic containers that only cost $1.00 apiece. Here is the link:

http://www.pioneerplastics.com/catalog.htm

Scroll down mid-page and on your right you will see Model # 282-C, which is 4-1/16" in diameter and 4-3/4" high. You can get a case of 36 of them for $36.00. I just put a little peat/sphagnum moss on the bottom, then I take the lid off a water bottle, turn it upside-down, and use it as a water dish (I also place a small piece of paper towel in, so the spider can suck from the towel). From there I simply add a perch stick so they can have an elevated position to survey, which is what they do in nature. Here is what such a simple set-up looks like with a White-Banded Fishing Spider as a model:

The view is straight down, but you can see the peat, the perch, and the little bottle-top water dish with a piece of paper towel in there. Some people like to use vermiculite as a substrate, but I found the spiders seem to like peat better, and the Burrowing Wolf Spiders can dig their lairs in the peat much better too. Since peat/sphagnum moss can sometimes harbor mites, I just dump a little on a saucer plate first, and then microwave it for 1.5 min to kill-off any potential mites.

If I have one of the larger spiders that needs more room (including arboreal tarantulas), then I get a full gallon-sized container like this:

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.ph...091233814186273

These are only a couple of bucks apiece as well, and even if you factor-in the shipping to get them to you, you're still doing all right

Anyway, hope this answers your questions,

Jack

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[acerbity]

No, you're just having trouble with your literacy. You sell things, you don't "sale" them. And "your" should be spelled you're in the context you're using it.

If you try to correct all of MJ's spelling and grammatical mistakes you will have a headache real quick. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[idolomantis]

If you try to correct all of MJ's spelling and grammatical mistakes you will have a headache real quick. :lol: :lol: :lol:

LOL if ya try to correct mine your in your grave when finished :lol: :lol: :lol:

(mainly cuz i,m dutch tho )

 

[macro junkie]

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[idolomantis]

i didnt finish school so i have an excuse

hahahhahaha thats the stuff

but how you get money and so much time to be online 24/7

 

[ExoticOddities]

Fellas ... please.

This was intended to be an advertisement for a couple of neat spiders, not a springboard for an endless series of mindless chatter. So far I have been accused of everything from moral failings to breaking the law, neither of which was fair or accurate, and now that the air has been cleared of that I get to watch members jibber-jabber on my thread about poor spelling and grammar.

How about the poor manners of intruding upon this post to begin with? The only "moral failings" that have gone on here have been the propensity of several individuals to continuously babble on this thread about nothing. Of the 26 responses to this thread, only 6 or 7 were relevant to the subject of these spiders. That means 19 of these posts have been rude and intrusive, either directly or indirectly.

C'mon guys, this isn't cool.

I am happy to discuss the subject of these spiders with anyone interested, as I have with a few of the others and one of the moderators, but the rest of you kindly take the BS outta here and post it somewhere else. It is just rude and immature.

Thank you,

Jack

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[bugzilla]

Well said that man -_-

Back on topic I'd like a bit more info on the Arrow-Shaped Micrathena: (Micrathena saggittata) and the Golden Silk Orb Weaver: (Nephila clavipes)

These are 2 stunning species IMO and I've seen photos of them for years :wub:

What do these guys eat?

How long do they live?

Can you supply males and females of each?

Are they easy to breed?

Do you post to the UK?

Is it legal to import them to the UK

And finally, probably the most important question you'll ever be asked by any married man on the entire planet HOW DO I PERSUADE THE WIFE THAT THESE ARE A GOOD IDEA?

 

[macro junkie]

And finally, probably the most important question you'll ever be asked by any married man on the entire planet HOW DO I PERSUADE THE WIFE THAT THESE ARE A GOOD IDEA?

carfull..your going off topic your get in trouble :lol:

 

[ExoticOddities]

Well said that man -_- Back on topic I'd like a bit more info on the Arrow-Shaped Micrathena: (Micrathena saggittata) and the Golden Silk Orb Weaver: (Nephila clavipes)

These are 2 stunning species IMO and I've seen photos of them for years :wub:

1. What do these guys eat?

2. How long do they live?

3. Can you supply males and females of each?

4. Are they easy to breed?

5. Do you post to the UK?

6. Is it legal to import them to the UK

7. And finally, probably the most important question you'll ever be asked by any married man on the entire planet HOW DO I PERSUADE THE WIFE THAT THESE ARE A GOOD IDEA?

1. The Micrathena is very small so eats smaller prey, while the Golden Silk gets quite large and will eat just about anything that is anywhere near their size.

2. I believe they both are seasonal and not very long-lived. Like mantids, I believe orb spiders merely leave their eggs behind overwinter. Yet I do know wolf spiders and tarantulas can be long-lived, but I honestly haven't kept orbs as captives myself, as they are all over my garden. I have just made them available. The Micrathenas seem solitary although there are usually several in the vicinity. The Golden Silks, on the other hand, are almost communal as I have areas where there are like 20 of them together, each with its own web per se, but all interconnected into each other's webbings, to form "a single unit" probably covering 20-50 cubic feet of air space. It is bizzarre and I would hate to be an insect anywhere near that area!

3. Yes I can get both sexes of each.

4. I have no idea.

5. As long as I don't have to pay the postage

6. I have no idea. You might want to check with the British Tarantula Society, but I doubt there'd be a problem. I believe Europe in general is the keystone hub of importing tarantulas, so I don't see why importing a lil' orb would be much different, especially as there is nowhere near the same market level.

7. LOL, can't help you there

 

[Sparky]

Does it HAVE to be a $50 minimum order

 

[ExoticOddities]

Does it HAVE to be a $50 minimum order

Well, there is a reason for this besides my own greed

Let's start with the cost of postage combined with the packaging material required to properly ship the animals as safely as possible. Just to overnight a letter to an individual by the USPS costs about $15. To overnight the smallest shipping box I have to another party is roughly $25. And that's just the shipping.

For me to properly package just one spider, let's say, invoves a $3.50 insulated shipping box, at leat one (and preferably 2) cold pack(s) at $1.10 apiece, and each spider requires a shipping vial that costs me $1.20 apiece. On top of this, I live in an extremely rural area, and my post office is 10 miles from me. Gas is $4.10 a gallon and my vehicle gets about 20 miles to the gallon, which means it costs me $4.10 just to go to the post office and back.

So let's add-up the costs: $25 in shipping, $6.80 in packaging, and $4.10 out of my pocket to make the trip to send one spider.

From the customer's perspective, it doesn't make much sense to spend $31.80 in shipping to get himself a $10-$15 spider, and from my perspective it doesn't make much sense to spend at least an hour of my time preparing the package, the label, the road trip, and the post office line waiting to be served ... just to come home with a $5.90 to $9.90 profit. (And this doesn't count the time it took me to catch the spider, house him, feed him, etc.)

Even from the customer's point of view, it makes far more sense to spend $50 on actual animals, and only maybe $35 in shipping, than it does to spend $10 on a spider and $31.80 in shipping. You see, once the cold packs and the shipping box are tallied, then the only additional expense per-animal becomes a mere $1.20 plastic shipping vial. Thus it costs only $36.60 to ship 5 animals, yet it costs $31.80 to ship just one. Thus the shipping price difference is only $4.80 to ship four more animals.

And from my standpoint, selling $50-worth of animals at once actually makes the net profit to me worth the housing, labeling, packaging, gas expense, and driving out of my way for the transaction worth all the effort, rather than just getting a cup of coffee when all is said and done by only selling one

LOL, hope this makes sense.

Jack

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[idolomantis]

carfull..your going off topic your get in trouble :lol:

you too o #### me too AAAAAAAAHHH

 

[Villosa]

Makes perfect sense to me Jack. I've always wondered why people prefer to buy $10 worth of inverts and have the shipping be more than the inverts themselves. It just isn't worth while to me to do something like that. I've looked over your list too on your site, phymata is something I've been looking for since forever...I'll definately try to find some space for those little critters.

On a side note: macro_junkie and idolomantis, a 27 year old and a 14 year old, you two can't seem to follow instructions posted by the man Peter himself on the announcements page can you? Both of you have been told (indirectly) time and again to cut the chitter chatter out in other's thread and as a person who's had it done to him, I find it extremely annoying.

 

[ExoticOddities]

Makes perfect sense to me Jack. I've always wondered why people prefer to buy $10 worth of inverts and have the shipping be more than the inverts themselves. It just isn't worth while to me to do something like that. I've looked over your list too on your site, phymata is something I've been looking for since forever...I'll definately try to find some space for those little critters.

You want to hear a sad story about that lil' Ambush Bug, Michael? Well, the photo I got of him was right after capture which occurred around dusk. I had just collected him and would have never seen him at all, had it not been for the fact a butterfly corpse 5x his size was dangling out of a flower, and upon closer inspection I saw this tiny young Ambush Bug had whacked him.

So anyway, I caught him and took that blurry photo that evening, but was not satisfied with the photo. So the next morning I took him out of his container to position him on a flower in bright sunlight, so I could take a better shot, and the lil' guy spread his wings and took off into the beautiful blue sky :angry:

LOL, and I have been trying to find another one ever since

Jack

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[ExoticOddities]

Got a couple more cool orb weaver shots while out in the field ...

The species are as follows:

Spotted Orb Weaver: (Neoscoma crucifera)

Orchard Orb Weaver: (Leucauge venusta)

Spined Micrathena: (Micrathena gracilus)

Enjoy!

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