Just got back from a vacation at Melbourne and Sydney. Had a chance to briefly check out the "fauna" of the area. My tour was quite packed with activities so I didn't have time to spend hours looking at jumpers.

However when I went on a day trip to the popular Jenolan Caves (3 hours drive from Sydney), I spotted some nests among the bushes and trees on the bank of the nice blue lake. Saw a platypus bobbing up and down the lake but couldn't get a clear picture of it.




The underground river drains into the lake and carries minerals that colors the lake blue.


I pried open a nest and a jumper dropped out right into my hand. Perhaps it was a bit cool, but it seemed to be quite inactive and hand friendly. I liked it almost immediately. Looks like a female. Small by our standards although I'm not sure if it's fully grown yet. I have no idea how to ID it.


Another close up. I had no vials with me, so I put it into my floss container. It's now safe and sound in a bottle here.

BTW as a followup, my Eris militaris female is still alive and kicking. She was caught as a subadult in July 2009.

Great size. Should try to get the genes passed along by offering some virgin females and then releasing the pregnant females nearby.

Faiz's Hyllus is not fully grown yet, IMHO. It will get bigger. Beautiful spider.

Nice video of H. Semi mating. I think some types of jumping spider females don't put up a fight like the Thianias do. Even golden spider (Ligurra latidens) females willingly let the males mate them.

Nice job, Mindstorm. Very well done.

Rare video of Ligurra males facing off. The magic of the internet. It's now available to be shared with the world. I think the ant spider male fights are very similar in that they also try to lock the fangs and then lifting.

I wish we have video footage of the "long legs" fight and also the natural predator sequence from Seremban. It's an experience that cannot be described. Have to be seen to be believed.

This post has been edited by Mangrovejumper: Nov 7 2010, 03:55 PM

Alrighty man. You got the genie out of the bottle. Got any you did a face off yet?




Any challengers for my Phidippus regius? Size about 19 mm.

Just kidding. Haha.

T. red looks like the same as T. sub.
Anyway, some/all of these spiders may already have been previously named. There were arachnologists of the past that
have done the research. Unfortunately, I don't think macro existed then!

Thiania species

Thiania abdominalis Zabka, 1985 — Vietnam
Thiania aura Dyal, 1935 — Pakistan
Thiania bhamoensis Thorell, 1887 — Burma to Sumatra
Thiania cavaleriei Schenkel, 1963 — China
Thiania chrysogramma Simon, 1901 — Hong Kong
Thiania cupreonitens (Simon, 1899) — Sumatra
Thiania demissa (Thorell, 1892) — Indonesia
Thiania formosissima (Thorell, 1890) — Borneo
Thiania gazellae (Karsch, 1878) — New Guinea
Thiania humilis (Thorell, 1877) — Sulawesi
Thiania inermis (Karsch, 1897) — Hong Kong
Thiania jucunda Thorell, 1890 — Sumatra
Thiania luteobrachialis Schenkel, 1963 — China
Thiania pulcherrima C. L. Koch, 1846 — Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sulawesi
Thiania sinuata Thorell, 1890 — Malaysia
Thiania suboppressa Strand, 1907 — China, Vietnam, Hawai'i
Thiania subserena Simon, 1901 — Malaysia
Thiania viscaensis Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 — Philippines

Another interesting factoid is that T. bhamoensis means "north of Burma", therefore Bhamo-ensis.

Bear in mind that when most of those spiders were first discovered (1880 to early 1900s), the countries as we know them didn't exist.
So don't put too much weight in where the spiders came from. Spider locations do not depend on country borders.

Heck of a post, Urahinuk.

You get a scientist award for your time and diligence. Thanks for the info.

Only thing I may add is, there's a belief out there that the more you feed the spiders, the faster they grow and the faster they die.
Don't know if it's true or not though.

I agree that temperature has a major influence on the growth rate and life span of jumpers, cold blooded creatures that they are. Everything is just faster when it's warm.

BTL:

For getting females, I think your better option may be to find sub-adult females and let them moult in captivity. You're then guaranteed virgin females that will be receptive to mating. If you can get 10-12 subadult females, it will be a good start to your project. You won't have to worry about space because the pregnant females will typically stay in one spot.

Nephila species, likely to be Nephila antipodiana.
Very big web weaver, not a jumping spider. The nests can reach up to 4 ft in diameter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephila

1dollar:

Ligurra latidens/Spider besi/Golden spider used to be relatively common. They're no longer easy to find.
You are right that they are very fierce and will chase off most other species of similar size.

I do not know the other spiders on that page.

Utility47's guess is a good one.

They're neither T-bha or T-sub. I don't think they're Thiania at all. Look at the teeth. They're totally different from the Thiania teeth structure.
I would guess they're Ligurra sp. Not Ligurra latidens, but another type of Ligurra with longer legs.
Only way to know is to ask the Armortail73 where he got them.

Compare the behaviour, angry stance and teeth structure with Mindstorm's Ligurra latidens.
Ligurra

This post has been edited by Mangrovejumper: Apr 15 2012, 03:13 AM

As requested by Mindstorm, I'm adding a post on my project. Got a female brown Thiania from my last trip back.
I didn't know the female was gravid. Didn't even know if she was an adult. Lo and behold she laid 2 batches of eggs a few months ago.
The first batch dried up but the 2nd batch hatched into 20 babies.



It took many days for the slings to vacate the original nest but one by one they eventually braved the world. They were sequentially transferred to disposable clear plastic cups. Using the experience of Mindstorm, I stuck hard plastic into the walls of the cups with tape. Quite artificial but works pretty well. The slings quickly recognized and hid in the slits between the plastic and the wall of the cups.





The greatest concern is obviously food. How do you find food for spiders so small? Thiania are typically not aggressive hunters, which means they are not good at hunting prey their size or bigger than them.

Fortunately, it's summer and my search out in the garden was rewarded. I found plenty of thrips flourishing in the yellow dandelion flowers. And the slings love thrips. A few days of flicking dandelion flowers over the cups to release the thrips and I have mostly fat slings.



Since I've been keeping the slings indoors, I've found that they are only active when there is light. Best way to feed is to keep them in a dark room and turn on the lights only when ready to feed them. In that way I can manipulate the cups without the slings trying to escape. Of course, the lights must be left on for the duration of the feed to allow the slings to hunt for food.

I expect them to grow much slower here due to the cooler temperatures but as long as I have food, I should be able to keep them healthy.

They do bicker quite a bit among each other even in the 1st instar. They will grapple first before pushing. No damage done though, as the fangs are too small to cause harm.



Will they grow to the same size as their mother from Asia? Or will they be bigger or smaller? Time will tell.

I found plenty of T. subs in Taiwan. I've not seen a T.bha there though. It's possible that T. bhas never made it to the island.

This looks similar to the male counterpart of Viper's pic on April 7th (post #2871). Not 100% sure due to the phenotypic variation in color. HKC, can you macro your spider again in broad daylight instead of inside the house?

There is a good chance they may be the same species, considering the size and body pattern.
Definitely not Thiania bhamoensis.