summer_jackel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summer_jackel) wrote2011-11-03 10:03 pm
summer_jackel) wrote2011-11-03 10:03 pm
Entry tags:
Spider porn!
Ok, I promised you all spider porn, and I would never dream of failing to deliver upon such a promise.
I'm pleased to announce that our first attempt to breed Chilean rose tarantulas has been a success! There are still many stages and months between now and a group of healthy, viable spiderlings, but mating did occur, and the male, who is apparently as competent as he is beautiful, even survived! It was fascinating.
I've been housing Alejandro, the male, and Esperanza, the new female, next to one another. When I checked on them last night, I noticed that she was moving about her cage rather quickly and alertly for a rosie. He has also been really animated, but you expect that in a male, who in the wild would be wandering around, looking for females until he got eaten by something, died of exposure, or died in his next molt because his exoskeleton became fatally tangled in his male bits (getting eaten by a female is suddenly looking a lot more fun). Perhaps they were aware of one another chemically.
Since she appeared to welcome his presence, and he isn't getting any younger, I asked Kyn to help me wrangle spiders and make the attempt. Kyn is an essential element to this project; she is not at all perturbed by large, agitated spiders moving quickly in unpredictable directions, and I confess I am not entirely desensitized in such matters.
At first he didn't seem to notice her (and was trying to climb determinedly in the opposite direction for a moment). When they finally noticed one another, they both froze.
The male is the brighter one up against the side of the box:
After a moment of utter motionlessness, she moved her second legs just a bit, and he sprang very quickly, hooking her fangs out of his way with the tibial claws on his front legs. It was really neat to see how perfectly the geometry was about this...his legs are exactly long enough to hook her comfortably and efficiently. Evolution has had a really long time to perfect this design. It hasn't changed much recently for a reason.
With her huge, wickedly sharp fangs safely occupied and held away from his face, he inserts first one pedipalp and then the other into her gonopore. Soft jazz plays in the background; the lights are tastefully dimmed.
The event itself took about a minute or so and was surprisingly complex...I might even say intimate. There was a lot of foreleg stroking and leg tapping. It was very sweet...so many legs all over the place, and they look like they are made of mohair, like 8-legged Steiff teddy bears having sex.
Heights of large hairy spider joy achieved, he faces the, er, hardest part of this task: the dismount. The lady's had her fill, and might now be thinking of dinner. He is fast!
...but careful. See how he's trying to come off one side, so she would have to turn around to get him? There was a lot of insistent leg tapping at this point. You are having sex with me stop. I am a male of your species stop. You aren't going to eat me stop.
At this point, he skittered away, she lunged for him, and Kyn adeptly stuck a paintbrush between them to foil her attack. She scrunched in the corner of her box, and I attempted to put a deli cup over the top of the male---turning my figurative back on the Lady Esperanza, who pounced forward and touched my hand with her spiderpaws! I yiped and rocketed back three feet, unfortunately hitting Esperanza with the deli cup, thankfully doing her no harm. I recovered and popped the cup on Alejandro, and, after making certain both spiders were fine, Kyn rolled around and laughed her ass off.
After our intrepid and handsome spider stud has evidenced spinning of another sperm web, I will attempt to breed Josephine as well. With any luck, they will produce egg sacs before they molt again, and those will hatch and provide healthy spiderlings. Those are a lot of "ifs," and many years before my ultimate goal of raising CB spiderlings from CB adults I produced can be attained, but for now, I have achieved tarantula breeding in the comfort of my own home. How cool is that???
I'm pleased to announce that our first attempt to breed Chilean rose tarantulas has been a success! There are still many stages and months between now and a group of healthy, viable spiderlings, but mating did occur, and the male, who is apparently as competent as he is beautiful, even survived! It was fascinating.
I've been housing Alejandro, the male, and Esperanza, the new female, next to one another. When I checked on them last night, I noticed that she was moving about her cage rather quickly and alertly for a rosie. He has also been really animated, but you expect that in a male, who in the wild would be wandering around, looking for females until he got eaten by something, died of exposure, or died in his next molt because his exoskeleton became fatally tangled in his male bits (getting eaten by a female is suddenly looking a lot more fun). Perhaps they were aware of one another chemically.
Since she appeared to welcome his presence, and he isn't getting any younger, I asked Kyn to help me wrangle spiders and make the attempt. Kyn is an essential element to this project; she is not at all perturbed by large, agitated spiders moving quickly in unpredictable directions, and I confess I am not entirely desensitized in such matters.
At first he didn't seem to notice her (and was trying to climb determinedly in the opposite direction for a moment). When they finally noticed one another, they both froze.
The male is the brighter one up against the side of the box:
After a moment of utter motionlessness, she moved her second legs just a bit, and he sprang very quickly, hooking her fangs out of his way with the tibial claws on his front legs. It was really neat to see how perfectly the geometry was about this...his legs are exactly long enough to hook her comfortably and efficiently. Evolution has had a really long time to perfect this design. It hasn't changed much recently for a reason.
With her huge, wickedly sharp fangs safely occupied and held away from his face, he inserts first one pedipalp and then the other into her gonopore. Soft jazz plays in the background; the lights are tastefully dimmed.
The event itself took about a minute or so and was surprisingly complex...I might even say intimate. There was a lot of foreleg stroking and leg tapping. It was very sweet...so many legs all over the place, and they look like they are made of mohair, like 8-legged Steiff teddy bears having sex.
Heights of large hairy spider joy achieved, he faces the, er, hardest part of this task: the dismount. The lady's had her fill, and might now be thinking of dinner. He is fast!
...but careful. See how he's trying to come off one side, so she would have to turn around to get him? There was a lot of insistent leg tapping at this point. You are having sex with me stop. I am a male of your species stop. You aren't going to eat me stop.
At this point, he skittered away, she lunged for him, and Kyn adeptly stuck a paintbrush between them to foil her attack. She scrunched in the corner of her box, and I attempted to put a deli cup over the top of the male---turning my figurative back on the Lady Esperanza, who pounced forward and touched my hand with her spiderpaws! I yiped and rocketed back three feet, unfortunately hitting Esperanza with the deli cup, thankfully doing her no harm. I recovered and popped the cup on Alejandro, and, after making certain both spiders were fine, Kyn rolled around and laughed her ass off.
After our intrepid and handsome spider stud has evidenced spinning of another sperm web, I will attempt to breed Josephine as well. With any luck, they will produce egg sacs before they molt again, and those will hatch and provide healthy spiderlings. Those are a lot of "ifs," and many years before my ultimate goal of raising CB spiderlings from CB adults I produced can be attained, but for now, I have achieved tarantula breeding in the comfort of my own home. How cool is that???