Where do house spiders come from in the house - is it good or bad. Spider breeding How many spiders are born at a time

The category of the most popular species includes spiders, which are perfectly adapted for captivity, are completely unpretentious, and also have an unusual appearance:

• Curly-haired tarantula or Brachyrelma alborilosum- unpretentious ambush spider, leading a nocturnal lifestyle. An ideal exotic for beginners, due to its original appearance, rather large body size, as well as amazing calmness. It does not have a bright color, and the unusual appearance is due to the presence of fairly long hairs with black or white tips. The base color of the spider is brown or brownish black. The average body length is 80 mm with a paw size of 16-18 cm. The cost of an adult reaches four thousand rubles;
• Acanthoscurria Antillensis or Asanthoscurria antillensis- a spider native to the Lesser Antilles. The species belongs to the real tarantula family. This is a fairly active spider that hides in a shelter during the day and feeds on various insects. The body length reaches 60-70 mm with a leg span of 15 cm. The main coloration is represented by dark brown shades with a slight metallic sheen on the carapace. The average cost of an adult reaches 4.5 thousand rubles;
• Chromatopelma Cyaneopubescens Chromatorelma syaneopubessens- a popular and very beautiful tarantula spider, which is characterized by a body length of 60-70 mm, as well as a leg span of up to 14-15 cm. The main coloration is represented by a combination of a reddish-orange abdomen, bright blue limbs and a green carapace. A hardy species that can go without food for several months. The average cost of an adult reaches 10-11 thousand rubles;
• crassiсrus lamanai- a species that is safe for humans, characterized by the presence of expanded joints in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe fourth leg in females. The main coloration of the adult male is black. The body size of the male is up to 3.7 cm and the carapace is 1.6x1.4 cm. Sexually mature females are much larger than males and their body length reaches 7 cm with a leg span of 15 cm. Adult females are painted mainly in brown tones. The average cost of an adult reaches 4.5 thousand rubles;
• cyclosternum fasciatum- one of the smallest in size, a tropical species of tarantula native to Costa Rica. The maximum leg span of an adult is 10-12 cm with a body length of 35-50 mm. The body color is dark brown with a noticeable reddish tinge. The cephalothorax is colored in reddish or brown shades, the abdomen is black with red stripes, and the legs are gray, black or brown. The average cost of an adult reaches 4 thousand rubles.

Also popular among fans of domestic exotics are such types of spiders as Cyriosmus bertae, Grammostola golden-striped and pink, poisonous Terafoza blondi.

Important! It is strongly not recommended to keep a red-backed spider at home, which is known to many as. This species is considered the most dangerous of the Australian spiders and releases a neurotoxic venom, so the owner of such an exotic should always have an antidote on hand.

Where and how to keep a domestic spider

Sedentary spiders with a lack of characteristic roundness in the abdomen are most likely sick, malnourished, or suffering from dehydration. In addition to the exotic, you need to choose and purchase the right terrarium for its maintenance, as well as the most important accessories for filling the home.

We select a terrarium

In too voluminous terrariums filled with a large number of decorative elements, such an exotic can easily be lost. It is also important to remember that many species are unable to get along with their neighbors, therefore, for example, tarantulas should be kept alone.

A terrarium house will become cozy for a spider, the optimal dimensions of which are two lengths of the maximum leg span. As practice shows, even the largest specimens feel great in a dwelling measuring 40 × 40 cm or 50 × 40 cm.

According to their design features, terrariums are horizontal for terrestrial species and burrowing exotics, as well as vertical for tree spiders. In the manufacture of a terrarium, as a rule, tempered glass or standard plexiglass is used.

Lighting, humidity, decor

Creating optimal, comfortable conditions for the spider is the key to preserving the life and health of the exotic when it is kept in captivity:

• a special substrate in the form of vermiculite is poured onto the bottom of the terrarium. The standard layer of such backfill should be 30-50 mm. Coconut dry substrate or ordinary peat crumb mixed with sphagnum moss is also very well suited for these purposes;
• the temperature regime inside the terrarium is also very important. Spiders belong to the category of very heat-loving pets, so the temperature range within 22-28 ° C will be optimal. As practice shows, a slight and short-term decrease in temperature is not capable of harming spiders, but one should not abuse the endurance of such exotics;
• despite the fact that spiders are predominantly nocturnal, they should not be limited in the light. As a rule, to create comfortable conditions, it is quite enough to have natural light in the room, but without direct sunlight on the container;
• as a shelter for burrowing spider species, special “houses” are used from pieces of bark or coconut shell. Also, for the purpose of decorating the interior space, various decorative driftwood or artificial vegetation can be used.

The humidity inside the spider's home requires special attention. To ensure optimal performance allows the presence of a drinker and the right substrate. You need to control the humidity level with a standard hygrometer. To increase humidity, the terrarium is irrigated with water from a household spray bottle.

Important! It should be noted that overheating of the air inside the terrarium is very dangerous for a well-fed spider, since in this case, decay processes are activated in the stomach and undigested food becomes the cause of exotic poisoning.

Terrarium safety

A terrarium for a spider must be completely safe, both for the most exotic pet and for others. It is especially important to observe safety rules when keeping poisonous spiders.

It should be remembered that spiders are able to move quite deftly even on a vertical surface, so the main condition for safe keeping is the presence of a reliable cover. It is impossible to acquire too high a capacity for terrestrial species of spiders, since otherwise the exotic may fall from a considerable height and receive a life-threatening rupture of the abdomen.

To ensure sufficient ventilation for the life of the spider, it is necessary to make perforations in the form of small and numerous holes in the cover of the terrarium.

What to feed house spiders

In order to make the process of feeding and caring for your home spider as convenient as possible, it is recommended to purchase tweezers. With the help of such a simple device, insects are given to spiders, and food remains and waste products polluting the home are also removed from the terrarium. The diet should be as close as possible to the nutrition of the spider in natural, natural conditions. The standard serving size is about a third of the size of the exotic itself.

It is interesting! The drinker is installed in terrariums in adults and can be represented by an ordinary saucer, slightly pressed into the substrate at the bottom of the container.

Spider lifespan at home

The average life expectancy of an exotic pet in captivity can vary greatly depending on the species and compliance with the rules of keeping:

• asanthoscurria antillensis - about 20 years;
• chromatorelma cyaneorubessens - males live an average of 3-4 years, and females - up to 15 years;
• tiger spider - up to 10 years;
• red-backed spider - 2-3 years;
• common argiope - no more than a year.

The females of Archonorelma deservedly belong to the number of centenarians among spiders, the average life expectancy of which is three decades.

Also, the champions in life expectancy include some species of spiders from the tarantula family, which are capable of living in captivity for a quarter of a century, and sometimes more.

At the exclamation of "spider", most people will cringe, because they do not associate this word with anything good. The first thing that comes to mind is that spiders are poisonous, and non-poisonous ones are just unpleasant ... they look so strange, and they weave webs in the corners. But one has only to get to know these creatures better and fear will be replaced, if not with delight, then with respect. Few can compare with them in terms of diversity of structure, lifestyle and complexity of behavior. From the point of view of taxonomy, spiders make up a separate order of the class Arachnida, numbering 46,000 species! And this is not a complete list, because new types of spiders continue to be discovered until now. Their closest relatives are ticks, salpugs and scorpions, and their distant ancestors are marine arthropods like relic horseshoe crabs. But with insects, to which spiders are often ranked, they just have nothing in common.

The two-horned spider (Caerostris sexcuspidata), which lives in the arid regions of Africa, imitates a dry tree with the help of body shape, color and posture.

The body of spiders consists of a cephalothorax and abdomen, connected by a so-called stalk. The cephalothorax is usually small, and the abdomen is highly extensible, so it is much larger than the chest. In most species, the stalk is so short that it is almost invisible, but myrmecium spiders, which mimic ants, boast a thin waist.

A spider from the genus myrmecium (Myrmecium sp.) pretends to be an ant, but its cunning is easy to unravel if you count the number of legs.

All spiders have eight legs, and by this feature they can be unmistakably distinguished from insects, which have six. But besides the legs, spiders have several more pairs of limbs. The first, called chelicerae, is located near the mouth. According to their purpose, chelicerae are a cross between mandibles and hands. With their help, spiders grab and cut prey, and also hold the female during mating, cut the web - in a word, they perform delicate types of work. The second pair of limbs are pedipalps. They are also located on the cephalothorax, but are longer and more like legs. This is a specific tool that spiders use to strain the liquid, semi-digested tissues of the victim. Males have special shaped pedipalps that they use to transfer sperm to the female. At the tip of the abdomen, several pairs of limbs have changed and turned into spider warts. Each such wart is connected to a large spider gland located in the abdomen. Spider glands are of different types and each of them produces its own kind of web.

An enlarged portrait of the earthen wolf spider (Trochosa terricola) allows you to delve into the details of spider anatomy: black eyes are visible on the sides of a pair of large eyes; the brown prehensile organs just below the eyes are the chelicerae, and the short, light yellow "legs" are the pedipalps.

All spiders breathe atmospheric oxygen, so their respiratory organs are lungs or tracheas. It is noteworthy that they have 4 lungs (or the same number of tracheas), and there are species that have a pair of both. The digestive system of spiders is relatively simple. Almost all species have venom glands, the secret of which is fatal to their victims, and sometimes to large animals. In prey paralyzed by the toxin, the spider injects saliva containing highly active enzymes. This juice partially digests the tissues of the victim, the hunter can only suck in semi-liquid food. The outer covers of spiders are not extensible, therefore, for uniform growth, they often have to molt. During molting and immediately after it, the spider is defenseless, during this period it does not hunt, but sits in a secluded place.

The dolophones spider (Dolophones sp.) owes its disguise to a protective coloration and pose at the same time.

The most amazing thing about the anatomy of these animals is the sense organs. Compared to other invertebrates in spiders, they are well developed and diverse. The first thing you notice is the eyes. Spiders usually have eight of them, of which the two main ones face forward, and the rest are located on the top and sides of the head, which gives their owner a three-dimensional view of 180 °. True, there are species with six, four and even two eyes, but this is not so important, because all spiders see only light spots (but they distinguish colors!). The exception is stray jumping spiders, which do not weave trapping webs, but attack the victim with “bare hands”. They have developed sharp binocular vision for an accurate throw, which allows them to distinguish clear contours of prey and correctly assess the distance to it. Cave species of spiders are completely blind.

To overcome the fear of spiders forever, just look into the expressive iridescent eyes of this female jumping spider (there are four of them on the front side). The view shown in the photo - fidippus mystaceus (Phidippus mystaceus) reaches a length of about 1 cm.

The sense of touch is much more important for hunting. It is unprecedentedly sharp in all spiders. Sensitive receptors and hairs on the paws allow them to capture insignificant fluctuations not only of the web, but also of the air itself. We can say that spiders hear with their feet. It has been observed that the sound of the violin awakens the hunting instinct in some spiders. Probably, the vibrations of the air caused by the instrument remind them of the buzzing of a fly. By the way, spiders themselves are by no means voiceless. Large species can hiss, buzz, crackle, apparently to scare off enemies. Small ones sing mating songs, but so quietly that this sound is not perceptible to the human ear, but females hear it perfectly. The sound of spiders arises from the friction of different parts of the body from each other, that is, according to the same principle as that of grasshoppers. But the abilities of spider legs are not limited to this. It turns out that spiders can smell with their feet! In fairness, it must be said that olfactory receptors are also located on the abdomen. The smell is important not so much for the capture of prey, but for procreation. Following the odorous trail of the female, eight-legged knights cover long distances and unmistakably distinguish a mate ready for mating from an immature one. Another sense that spiders have mastered to perfection is the sense of balance. Spiders, without looking, accurately determine where the top is, where the bottom is, which is not surprising for animals that spend most of their lives in limbo. Finally, spiders do not have taste buds, but they do have a taste. They distinguish tasty prey from tasteless prey again with their feet!

Theraphosa blondi female in natural environment.

The sizes of spiders vary widely. The body length of large tarantulas reaches 11 cm, one of them, Blond's teraphosa, even got into the Guinness Book of Records with a leg span of 28 cm. Crumb spiders are just as amazing. So, the smallest species - patu digua - grows to only 0.37 mm!

The patu digua spider (Patu digua) is so small that it is difficult to distinguish even at this magnification, when the papillary pattern of a human finger is visible.

Due to the spherical or pear-shaped abdomen, the outlines of the body in most spiders are closer to the circumference. But in nephil orbs, the body is elongated; in some species, the abdomen can be in the shape of a rhombus, heart, or strongly flattened.

A female Gasteracantha cancriformis in her hunting net. This type of spider got its name (loosely translated from Latin as “crab-shaped prickly belly”) for the unusual shape of the body, in contrast to the crab spiders, so named for the ability to move sideways.

Body contours can be distorted by long hairs and spines.

Curved or arched gasteracantha (Gasteracantha arcuata) is a relative of the previous species, but looks even more exotic.

Jumping spiders from the genus Simetha (Simaetha) are tiny (a couple of millimeters in size) inhabitants of the tropics of Southeast Asia. All representatives of this genus wear an outfit with a gold pattern.

The length of the legs also changes. In terrestrial species, it is usually small, and spiders that weave webs and spend a lot of time in the thick of foliage are often long-legged.

The color of these arthropods can be, without exaggeration, any, but given the predatory nature of spiders, it is almost always patronizing. Accordingly, the types of the temperate zone are usually painted inconspicuously: in gray, black, brown tones - to match the earth, sand, dry grass. Tropical spiders are often bright, with complex patterns.

Tweitesia are exceptionally beautiful, whose body is encrusted with shiny spots that look like sequins.

Silver-dotted tweitesia (Thwaitesia argentiopunctata).

In terms of territory coverage, spiders can be safely called cosmopolitans. They live on all continents, in all climatic zones and in all natural environments. Spiders are most diverse in the steppes, meadows and forests, but they can also be found in deserts, tundras, caves, among the glaciers of the Arctic islands and high mountains, in fresh water, human dwellings. By the way, spiders are one of the highest mountain animals - the Himalayan jumping spider lives on Everest at an altitude of 7000 m!

Prey of the Himalayan jumping spider (Euophrys omnisuperstes) - insects brought to Everest by wind.

The habitat has left its mark on the way of life of different species. Common to all spiders is that predation and the associated tendency to loneliness, although there are exceptions. Social filoponella and stegodiphus prefer to build a common network, which they hunt together ...

Saracen stegodiphuses (Stegodyphus sarasinorum) unanimously attack an unlucky butterfly. This species lives in India, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

and Kipling's bagheera jumping spider, contrary to its predatory name, is herbivorous.

Kipling's bagheera (Bagheera kiplingi) carries a bloodless victim in chelicera - juicy appendages that grow on the leaves of some tropical acacias. Trees thus attract ants, which along the way protect them from pests, and the herbivorous spider uses these gifts free of charge.

Most spiders are sedentary, although among the jumping spiders and wolf spiders there are many vagrants who freely roam the expanses and attack oncoming insects of a suitable size. Homebody species are equipped in different ways. The most primitive of them hide from prying eyes in the recesses of the soil: it is more convenient to hunt and defend themselves. Sidewalk spiders (crab spiders) hide among the petals of flowers, while sitting on one flower, they gradually change color to match their shelter.

What could be more idyllic than a butterfly drinking nectar? But a tragedy is unfolding before us: the beauty actually fell into the paws of a side-walker spider, indistinguishable in color from the flower on which it hunts.

But a good disguise does not solve all problems, because it is not enough to grab a victim, you also need to keep it, and it’s tiring to look out for prey for days on end. Therefore, spiders gradually moved from active ambush hunting to more reliable and passive methods of catching prey. At the first stage, they began to dig deep minks, lining them with cobwebs for greater convenience.

The trapping tube of the Rechenberg cebrennus (Cebrennus rechenbergi) is woven from cobwebs, inlaid on the outside with grains of sand.

More advanced species began to stretch the threads from the mink to neighboring stems - an ideal notification system turned out: the owner can rest in the mink, and the crawling insect, having hooked the cobweb, will notify the spider of its approach and will be taken by surprise by the sudden appearance of a predator from under the ground. In some species, such signaling threads have evolved into complex arachnoid funnels and tubes.

Other species began to improve not the warning system, but the methods of retaining prey. To do this, they began to close the minks with earthen plugs and not simple ones, but on hinges! The spider, sitting on the inside of the hatch, keeps it closed, so that it is completely impossible to see its dwelling from the surface. As soon as the victim hooks on the signal web, the spider jumps out, drags the stunned insect into the hole, slams the lid and paralyzes with a bite. In this scenario, even strong prey has no chance to escape.

An open spider burrow with a raised lid and signal cobwebs stretching in all directions.

However, burrow hunting does not allow spiders to get off the ground, so the most advanced species stopped equipping dens and began to be content with only one web, stretching it among grass, leaves and other above-ground objects.

Creating a web, the spider places it in the places of the most probable movement of prey, but so that gusts of wind, vibrations of branches, and movements of large animals do not break it.

The fact is that spiders spend a lot of deficient protein to create a web, so they value this material. They often eat a torn web, using it as a raw material for the production of a new one. The structure of the web ideally takes into account the characteristics of the favorite prey of one or another type of spider: in one case, it can be randomly stretched threads in all directions, in the other, a circle sector stretched in the corner of the shelter, in the third, a full circle.

Rainbow play of light on a circular web stretched in the gorge of the Karijini National Park (Australia).

A thin cobweb seems fragile, but in terms of the thickness of the thread, it is one of the strongest fibers on Earth: a cobweb with a conditional thickness of 1 mm can withstand a weight of 40 to 261 kg!

Drops of water are much larger in diameter than cobwebs, but cannot break them. When they dry, the web, due to its elasticity, will restore its shape.

In addition, the web is very elastic (it can stretch to a third of its length) and sticky, so the beating victim with its movements only confuses itself even more. The web of nephil orbs is so strong that it can even hold a bird.

A tern entangled in the web of a nephila orbworm in the Seychelles. From the side of the spider, nothing threatens her, since the bird is too big for him. Usually in such cases, the nephiles simply cut off the cobwebs so that the beating prey does not spoil the entire network for them. However, the sticky web sticks the feathers together, which can cause the bird to lose its ability to fly and die of starvation.

Some spiders additionally strengthen the web with special threads - stabiliments.

The North American spider Uloborus glomosus (Uloborus glomosus) has reinforced its web in a spiral with zigzag stabiliments.

It is difficult to imagine the creator of the web outside the air, but among the spiders there were also such. Spiders from the genus of hunters roam among coastal vegetation in search of near-water insects, but on occasion they easily move along the surface of the water and even plunge into its thickness, holding on to plants.

When crossing a pond, the banded hunter (Dolomedes fimbriatus), like water strider bugs, rests on a film of water tension.

The water spider does not leave the reservoir at all; among the underwater vegetation, it creates a dome of cobwebs, from which it stretches trapping threads. The body of this spider is covered with hairs that hold air bubbles. The spider periodically rises to the surface in order to renew their supply, and drags large bubbles with it and fills the space under the dome with them. In this air tent he lives and breeds.

Water spider (Argyroneta aquatica) and the air bell he created. The body of the spider itself is also surrounded by an air bubble, giving it a silvery hue.

Spiders breed in the tropics all year round, in the temperate zone - once a year, in summer. Usually, male spiders are much smaller than females (in some species, 1500 times!), Less often - almost the same size as them, and only in a water spider, males are a third larger than their girlfriends. In addition to size, males, as a rule, are also distinguished by bright colors. Mating in these arthropods occurs unusually - without direct contact of the genitals. First, the male fills the pedipalps with sperm and sets off on a journey with this gift. Having followed the trail of the female by smell, he proceeds to solve the main problem: how to get close to the gluttonous and huge girlfriend without awakening her hunting instinct? Different species follow different strategies. Some spiders warn of their appearance with a characteristic twitching of the web - this “call” should make it clear to the female that there is no prey in front of her, but it does not always work, and often the boyfriend has to flee at full speed. Other males build a small mating net next to the female's web: rhythmically twitching it, they invite their girlfriend to a closer acquaintance. Male wandering spiders, which do not weave webs, perform a mating dance, raising their paws in a certain sequence, like traffic controllers. In some species, daredevils manage to involve the spider in the dance. Males of the amazing Pisaura (Pisaura mirabilis) rely on a tried and tested trick: they go on a date with a treat - a fly wrapped in a web. The most timid of spiders mate only with a recently molted female: with soft covers, she herself is defenseless and not prone to attack. During mating, the male introduces pedipalps into the female's spermatic tract, sometimes entangling her with cobwebs as a safety net.

Acrobatic sketch performed by a male peacock spider. In addition to raising their legs, males of all species of this genus also show an unusually colorful abdomen, raising it like a peacock's tail. It is almost impossible to see this miracle in nature, since the size of peacock spiders is only a couple of millimeters.

Usually an intimate meeting takes place in private, but sometimes several males look after one female and then they arrange fights among themselves. It happens that the female mates successively with several males. After mating, the spider often eats one or all partners. In some species, males survive by agile flight or cunning.

The male flower spider (Misumena vatia) climbed onto the back of the female and became inaccessible to her. For him, this is the only way to protect himself after mating, since the forces of the partners are too unequal. Some types of cross-spiders use the same method.

In more rare cases, the male and female part peacefully or even live in the same nest, sharing prey. A few days or weeks after mating, the female lays her eggs in a webbed cocoon.

The cocoon of the brown agreka (Agroeca brunnea) is two-chambered: in the upper chamber there are eggs, and in the lower chamber there are nurseries for newborn spiders.

The fertility of different species varies from 5 to 1000 eggs, if there are many eggs, then there can be up to a dozen cocoons. The size of the cradle is small - from a couple of millimeters to 5 centimeters in diameter; coloring can be white, pink, green, golden, striped.

Gasteracantha cancriformis cocoons are as unusual as these spiders themselves. The females attach their golden-black-striped cradles to the underside of the leaves.

If, in relations with males, spiders demonstrate the dark side of their nature, then in dealing with offspring, they show the light side. Females carefully attach cocoons in a secluded corner of the hunting net, their own nest, burrow, and vagrant species carry them with them, holding them with chelicerae or gluing them to the abdomen. Females of the Venezuelan cross (Araneus bandelieri) weave a common cocoon, and some species, like cuckoos, throw their offspring into the nests of their neighbors. If the cocoon is left in a secluded place, then after hatching, the spiders are left to their own devices. Until the expiration of the first three molts, they keep crowded, and then disperse. Females carrying cocoons with them often take care of their offspring and after birth they are spiderlings. They carry babies on their bodies and provide food.

Female of one of Pisaura species (Pisaura sp.) with a precious burden glued to her abdomen.

Young spiders living in open landscapes often resort to settling with the help of a web. To do this, they climb a stalk or twig higher and release a cobweb, but do not attach it as when weaving a net, but leave it to hang free. When the thread is long enough, the wind picks it up along with the spider and takes it far, sometimes over a hundred kilometers. The years of such a web are especially noticeable in August-September.

Web with a brood of spiders. While the kids are small, they keep crowded.

In species of the temperate zone, wintering often takes place in the egg stage, but if young spiders hibernate, they often demonstrate resistance to cold and can appear on the snow during winter thaws. Most small spiders live no more than a year, the largest tarantulas in nature live up to 7-8 years, and all 20 can live in captivity.

This is not snow, but a carpet of cobwebs that covers the shore of one of Australia's reservoirs.

The prey of spiders is varied. First of all, their victims are mobile, but not too strong insects - flies, mosquitoes, butterflies - they are the ones who have the greatest chance of getting into the net.

If the victim is especially slow and defenseless, then the spider does not hesitate to attack prey many times larger than itself: a caterpillar, an earthworm, a snail.

Nomadic species and spiders that live in minks are more likely to come across flightless beetles and orthoptera.

Hutchinson's Mastophora (Mastophora hutchinsoni) uses a very unusual way of hunting. She weaves a gossamer with a sticky drop at the end, hangs with this boladoras in an outstretched paw and swings it until some insect sticks to the drop.

The largest tarantulas prey mainly on small vertebrates - lizards, snakes, frogs. Occasionally, small birds (more often chicks) become their prey, which is reflected in their name and at the same time gave rise to a prejudice that tarantulas eat only birds.

Deinopis spiders (Deinopis sp.) first weave a square net, and then, holding it straight, creep up and throw it on prey.

Amphibiotic and water spiders catch tadpoles, aquatic insect larvae, fish fry and even adult small fish. Some species of spiders have a narrow food specialization, for example, they hunt only ants or spiders of other species.

Large vertebrates are never attacked by spiders, but some venomous spiders may bite in self-defense. Spider venom can be of local and general action. Local venom causes severe pain at the site of the bite, redness (blue), swelling and tissue death, in some cases so deep that internal organs are exposed. A general venom causes headache, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, mental agitation, skin rash, palpitations, kidney dysfunction, in severe cases, suffocation and death. Fortunately, most poisonous spiders belong to tropical exotics, and of those common in densely populated areas, the South Russian tarantula and karakurts are the most dangerous.

The South Russian tarantula (Lycosa singoriensis), although infamous, is not as dangerous as the karakurt.

These spiders live in the herbage of the steppes and semi-deserts of Southern Europe, Asia and North America, and livestock also suffer from their bites, which in the past sometimes led to a mass death of grazing camels, sheep, and horses. The venom of the karakurt is 15 times stronger than the venom of the gyurza, but unlike the snake, the bite of the spider is shallow, therefore, as a first aid, cauterization of the bite site with a burning match is effective. True, this measure is saving only in the case of immediate (within 1-2 minutes) application. If first aid was not provided, then the victim's life can only be saved in the hospital with the help of anti-karakurt serum.

The female karakurt (Latrodectus tredecimguttatus) guards cocoons with eggs, during this period she is especially aggressive. The species shown in the photo lives in arid regions of Europe and Asia.

Although spiders seem to be dangerous and invulnerable predators, they are defenseless against many enemies. They are hunted by all kinds of birds, small animals, lizards, frogs. Bustards, noses and dormouse do not give in even to poisonous species: birds fill their stomachs with karakurts, and animals hunt tarantulas. Among the invertebrates there are also brave men who are ready to eat their eight-legged brother. Spiders are attacked by praying mantises, bears, predatory beetles and even ... flies, however, not ordinary, but predatory.

These female scorpion spiders (Arachnura melanura) display a variety of intraspecific coloration. Females of this species have an elongated abdomen, which they can move like scorpions. Despite their formidable appearance, they do not have a sting, and the bite of these spiders is painful, but not dangerous. Males are smaller and of a regular shape.

Dead tarantula infected with cordyceps. Outgrowths that look like deer antlers are the fruiting bodies of the fungus.

This Thai argiope (Argiope sp.) sits in a trapping net with legs folded in pairs and stretched along the stabiliments. So it becomes part of the web pattern and ceases to interest others.

In this regard, spiders have developed a variety of means of protection (some of them also serve as adaptations for hunting). This should include protective coloring and body shape, as well as special postures.

Some spiders freeze in the center of the web with outstretched legs, becoming like a stick, frinarachns and pasilobuses imitate bird excrement in this position and even emit an appropriate smell that attracts flies!

Seeing danger, nomadic species take to their heels; spiders weaving a web, on the contrary, land on the ground; some species take a threatening posture with their paws raised high; small spiders shake the web so that their contours in the trembling network seem to be blurred.

The sickle-shaped pasilobus (Pasilobus lunatus) is indistinguishable from the excrement of small animals, but it only looks like this in sunlight.

As if as a reward for its unpretentious appearance, nature endowed this spider with the ability to glow in ultraviolet light.

Venomous spiders bite while tarantulas… shaken, while the hairs covering their body break off and rise into the air. When inhaled and on the skin, they cause irritation.

Rechenberg's already familiar cerebrennus never ceases to amaze: in case of danger, he flees, tumbling over his head!

It can only be surpassed by the golden-yellow carparachna living in the Namib Desert.(Carparachne aureoflava), which does not run away from enemies, but rolls head over heels from the dune, developing a speed of up to 1 m / s. This speed is not so small, because in order to reach it, the carparachne must make 40 somersaults over its head!

Paraplektana spider (Paraplectana sp.) dressed as a ladybug.

Some burrow spiders create three-chamber underground shelters to protect against wasps: if the enemy managed to crack the first door, the spider moves to the next compartment of the hole, which is also locked with a lid, and so on. At the same time, burrows can be configured in such a way that the enemy is simply not able to find the spider in the underground labyrinth.

The female of the severed cyclocosmia (Cyclocosmia truncata). This burrow spider, originally from Mexico, uses the most original method of protection - it plugs the entrance to the hole with its own body. The blunt end of the abdomen perfectly matches the size of the hole, so that a perfect cork is obtained, which is very difficult to pull out from the outside.

The front side of the abdomen of the cyclocosmia resembles an ancient seal.

Spiders have long evoked mixed feelings in people. On the one hand, they were feared because of their unpleasant appearance and poisonousness. The infamous karakurt in North America was nicknamed the "black widow", and the word "karakurt" in Kazakh means "black death". The subconscious fear of spiders is so strong that some people, even now, with little or no contact with dangerous species, are terribly afraid of these arthropods - such a mental deviation is called arachnophobia. On the other hand, people have always been fascinated by the ability of spiders to weave webs, and attempts have been made to extract practical benefits from this. Even in ancient China, they knew how to make a special “fabric of the eastern sea” from the web, the Polynesians used a thick web for sewing and making fishing nets. In Europe, in the 18th-19th centuries, isolated attempts were made to make fabric and clothing from cobwebs; in modern industry, cobwebs are used in instrument making. However, it was not possible to give rise to the industrial production of this material due to the difficulties of keeping and breeding a huge number of producers. Now spiders are bred in captivity as exotic pets, and large tarantulas, which are convenient to observe, are most popular among amateurs. But other species of these arthropods also deserve protection as useful and very effective regulators of the number of harmful insects.

Smith's Brachypelma (Brachypelma smithi; female) is one of the most popular tarantula spiders. Due to the massive catch for sale in their homeland, in Mexico, it has become rare.

Read about the animals mentioned in this article: horseshoe crabs, ants, grasshoppers, praying mantises, ladybugs, crabs, snails, frogs, snakes, lizards, peacocks, cuckoos, deer.

Sexually mature males in the way of life and appearance in most species are very different from females. In many species, the males are brightly colored. They are usually smaller, have proportionately more elongated legs, a different arrangement of pedipalps, and also differ from females in much greater mobility.

Sexual maturity of males occurs earlier than that of females. The average maturity of males is 1.5 years, in females it occurs no earlier than 2 years (in some species, the difference is even more divergent in time - 1.5 and 3 years, respectively), therefore, in fact, it seems impossible to "closely related" crossing of spiders that emerged from one cocoon, in natural conditions. However, this is possible in captivity when growing males and females by artificially creating for them different temperature and humidity conditions and feeding regimes from an early age.

A mature male before mating weaves the so-called sperm - web, which, as a rule, has a triangular or quadrangular shape, on the lower side of which he releases a drop of sperm. The sperm is captured by the copulatory apparatus, after which the male proceeds to search for the female. At this time, his behavior is directly opposite to that of the previous period of life. He leads a vagrant lifestyle, is highly active and can be seen moving even in the daytime, covering rather significant distances in search of a female (7-9 km per night ( Shillington et al. 1997).

The detection of the female occurs mainly due to touch (vision in no way affects this process: spiders with smeared eyes easily find females) by the odorous trail left by her on the substrate or web at the hole (for example, the female Aphonopelma hentzi at the entrance to the hole weaves a ball from the web).

Having found the female, the male cautiously moves inside the hole. When meeting with a female, two scenarios are possible.

In the first variant, if the female is not ready to mate, she swiftly attacks the male, spreading her chelicerae and preparing to grab him. In this case, the male is forced to hastily retreat, otherwise he may not be perceived as a potential partner, but risks turning into a “hearty dinner”, or losing one or more limbs.
In the second scenario, the female, as a rule, does not initially show any interest in the male. In this case, the male lowers the cephalothorax and raises the abdomen, stretching forward the spaced forelegs and pedipalps, backing away in the direction of the exit from the hole, thereby attracting the attention of the female and, as it were, inviting her to follow him. From time to time he stops and moves his front legs and pedipalps now to the right, then to the left, trembling with his whole body so that the female's interest in him does not weaken until they leave the hole and come to the surface. Here, having space for safe movement, he feels more confident.

Unlike other species of spiders, which are characterized by complex mating behavior, consisting in the performance of peculiar "wedding dances", for example, species of families Araneidae, Salticidae, Lycosidae, or in offering to a female of recently killed prey (in Pisauridae), courtship of tarantulas is relatively simpler.

The male periodically carefully approaches the female, quickly touches her with the tips of the front pair of legs and pedipalps or “drums” on the substrate. He usually repeats this procedure several times with slight interruptions until he is convinced that the behavior of the female does not pose a danger to him, and she will not harm him (to date, studies have not been carried out regarding the presence of features characteristic of the mating behavior of various species tarantulas).

If the female is still passive, the male will slowly approach her, bringing his front paws between her pedipalps and chelicerae, which the female usually pushes apart when ready to mate. Then he, as it were, rests against them with his tibial hooks in order to take a stable position and tilts back her cephalothorax, “stroking” the lower surface of the base of the abdomen.

If the female expresses her readiness to mate (which is also often expressed in frequent "drum" sound, issued by kicking the feet on the substrate), he unfolds the embolus of one of the pedipalps and introduces it into the gonoporelocated in epigastric groove. The male performs the same action with the second pedipalp. This is actually the very moment of copulation, which lasts literally a few seconds, after which the male, as a rule, quickly runs away, since usually the female immediately begins to pursue him.

Contrary to popular belief that a female often eats her partner after mating, in most cases this does not happen (in fact, cases of eating females by males are known), if there is enough space for him to retire a considerable distance, and the male is able to after some time to fertilize several more females. Often also a female mates with different males in one season.

fertilization egg-stealing takes place in uterus with which they communicate seminal receptacles, and after a certain period copulation(from 1 to 8 months), the duration of which is directly dependent on various conditions (season, temperature, humidity, food availability) and the specific type of tarantula, the female lays eggs, braiding them in cocoon. This whole process takes place in the living chamber of the burrow, which turns into a nest. The cocoon, as a rule, consists of two parts, fastened by the edges. First, the main part is woven, then the masonry is laid on it, which is then woven with the covering part. Some species ( Avicularia spp., Theraphosa blondi) weave their “protective hairs” into the walls of the cocoon to protect it from possible enemies.

Unlike most other spiders, the female tarantula guards her clutch and cares for the cocoon, periodically turning it over with the help of chelicerae and pedipalps and moving it depending on changes in humidity and temperature conditions. This is associated with certain difficulties with the artificial incubation of spider eggs at home, which is often advisable, since it is not uncommon for females to eat laid cocoons, both as a result of stress caused by anxiety, and "for unknown reasons." For this purpose, collectors from the USA, Germany, England and Australia have developed an incubator, and some fanciers, taking cocoons from females, take over their "mother" functions by turning the cocoon by hand several times a day (see also Breeding).

Interestingly, for several species of tarantulas, facts of laying are known after mating one after another of several (one or two) cocoons with a time difference, as a rule, no more than a month: Hysterocrates spp.., Stromatopelma spp., Holothele spp., Psalmopoeus spp.., Tapinauchenius spp.., Metriopelma spp.., Pterinochilus spp.. (Rick West, 2002, oral communication), Ephebopus murinus and E. cyanognathus (Alex Huyer, 2002, oral communication), Poecilotheria regalis (Jan Evenow, 2002, oral communication). At the same time, the percentage of unfertilized eggs increases significantly in repeated clutches.

The number of eggs laid by a female varies from species to species and is related to her size, age, and other factors. Record number of eggs known for the species Lasiodora parahybana and is approximately 2500 pieces! On the contrary, in small species it does not exceed 30-60. Incubation periods are also different - from 0.8 to 4 months. Interestingly, arboreal species generally have shorter life spans than terrestrial species (see table).

Arboreal, even such large spiders as Poecilotheria spp.. , as well as tarantulas of the genus Pterinochilus live no more than 7 - 14 years. Large terrestrial, and especially American spiders, live in captivity up to 20 years, and according to individual reports, even to a more respectable age (for example, the age of the female Brachypelma emilia who lived at S. A. Shults and M. J. Schultz, was estimated at least 35 years).

The life expectancy of males is significantly less and, in the general case, is limited to 3-3.5 years. The fact is that males, as mentioned above, mature earlier than females (1.5-2.5 years), and, as a rule, the average lifespan of male tarantulas of the last age (after the last molt) is five to six months. However, for individual specimens of a number of species, much longer periods are known.

Yes, according to Dr. Claudio Lipari, the life limits of males of the last age of the Brazilian Grammostola pulchra amounted to at least 27 months, and one copy lived with him for more than four years.

Other centenarians among last-age male tarantulas reported Luciana Rosa, the following:

Grammostola rosea- 18 months, Megaphobema velvetosoma - 9 months, Poecilotheria formosa- 11 months, Poecilotheria ornata- 13 months Poecilotheria rufilata - 17 months.

According to the Moscow collector Igor Arkhangelsky male of last age Brachypelma vagans lived in captivity 24 months(however, the last few months it was fed artificially), and another individual of the same species lived 20 months.

According to a Canadian scientist Rika Vesta adult male tarantula Phormictopus cancerides lived at Allana McKee, having lost the upper segments of the pedipalps after molting, 27 months, and the male Brachypelma albopilosum at the very Rika Vesta - 30 months after maturity and died during the second molt (personal communication).

The following facts of longevity among male tarantulas have been noted Lasiodora parahybana : 3 years Jeff Lee, 2 years 6 months Joey Reed and 2 years 3 months Jim Hitchiner.

Also the male of the species Grammostola rosea lived 2 years 5 months Jay Staples.
There is a unique case when an amateur Jay Stotsky small arboreal male Poecilotheria regalis successfully molted twice! at the last age, with an interval between molts in 18 months. At the same time, the pedipalps and one chelicera lost during the first molt fully recovered after the second molt!

It should be true to say that such cases are known only when keeping tarantulas in captivity.

Regarding the onset of puberty in tarantulas, there is the following, often conflicting information.

Male tarantulas of the genus Avicularia reach sexual maturity by 2.5 years, females - by 3 years ( Stradling 1978, 1994). Baerg (Baerg, 1928, 1958) reports that males Aphonopelma spp.. reach sexual maturity at 10-13 years, females - at 10-12 years. tarantulas Grammostola burzaquensis become sexually mature at 6 years of age Ibarra Grasso, 1961), Acanthoscurria sternalis - at 4-6 years old ( Galiano 1984, 1992).

The information given by these authors most likely relates to observations in nature. At the same time, it should be taken into account that in captivity, the timing of the onset of puberty of tarantulas is generally reduced, and often quite significantly.

In conclusion, I would like to note that tarantulas in captivity actually have no natural enemies.