Here's a reply to an email i sent. Liana, if you're reading this, hope you dont mind me posting the mail here. Thanks for the reply!

hi adrian, glad you enjoy fighting spiders, they are very fast and strong! skimmed thru the forum and i think its cool that so many people are interested in them. i caught all my spiders in singapore and found that they favour building their nests in between the leaves of the spider lily, as well as the large ixora plants. i rear the spiders i caught, but not the babies. for my experiment, to get virgin spiders, i reared the juveniles i caught from the wild. babies cannot be reared, from experience, they do not survive in captivity. eggs do hatch but the spiderlings rarely survive past the second instar. i have worked with other spiders and some can be reared from eggs. im not sure why thania cannot.

i chose this spider becos it is common and easy to catch, and i wanted to repeat a similar experiment done on another spider called the wolf spider. like the wolf spider, thania has very good eyesight and is a very good hunter. i cant really say much abt them fighting cos i didnt let my spiders fight at all.


<adrianlwk@yahoo.com>
03/04/2008 09:28 PM
To Liana Tze Ann TANG/RSI/NLB@NLB
cc
Subject Fighting Spiders
Office Ext

Hi, I'm Adrian from Malaysia.

i read about ur paper on
Title : Teenage flirting: its effects on mate choice
and offspring quality in female fighting spider
Thiania bhamoensis, which was quite recent last year
presented in University Scholars Programme.

Really surprises me that u have done a research
regarding this spiders. I am really curious how did u
come about choosing these spiders and topic. Did you
manage to hatch the eggs and rear the spiderlings?

Wonder if u still keep them.

Anyway i started this forum about them
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/608348
which of cuz depict alot about them figthing.
Maybe u can comment on them there.

Nice research though!

Cheers.

Today FS fight really extreme .... cant wait to see the video.
Haf to wait for Mindstorm to upload.

Here's tonight my own FS fight.
Hades vs Nexus. (Hades won. Nexus try to chop Hades twice but failed. Hades counter attack with a strong chop and grab/lock Nexus till both FS become like ball. )

Link: http://download.yousendit.com/C1BF7D91582EA4DA


Cheers,
v_viper88

phao fu....

Working today since morning...

Yeah, Sat was a great day. Viper and myself got to fight our FS and also catch some new ones after that and fight somemore!

We met outside and reached our destination about 5pm. It was a cloudy day. After looking around we found a nice spot on some steps under the sky, and this is our stage...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioorsPqCOZ4

We started off by fighting out sparring spiders...most of them cannot fight.
Winner on left.

Spitfire(Viper's) vs Destroyer(Mindstorm's)
Spitfire(Viper's) vs Jumper(Mindstorm's)
Justine(Mindstorm's) vs Spitfire(Viper's)(round 1 and 2)
Justine(Mindstorm's) vs Bigboy(Viper's, kecut)
Justine(Mindstorm's) vs Kaizer(Viper's, kecut)

After that we lined up our top 5 and set them to match each other like this
1. Hades(Viper's) vs Longman(Mindstorm's)
2. Hope(Viper's) vs Jack(Mindstorm's)
3. Xinan(Viper's) vs Bro1(Mindstorm's)
4. Xonan(Viper's) vs Kelapasawit(Mindstorm's)
5. Scorpio(Viper's) vs Redleaf(Mindstorm's)

Starting from bottom, here is Scorpio vs Redleaf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fvqw5b8SGY

Next, Xonan vs Kelapasawit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc2Us9gI1_s

One point for each of us. Damn, then it started to rain...we had to move our fighting ring to a shade area....

This morning found a young male FS before went to work. Average-small size.

The leaf/nest


The FS


No time to let it fight yet.. haf to wait till i finish work later...

Ya, Mindstorm. Sat FS fight really extreme man. Its been long time i've seen such FS fight where fierce FS fight with strong killer chop attack, arm lock/grab its opponent and powerful fight blow till death or badly injured. The recent fight HOPE vs Crossfire/Xinan oso very fierce but fight at the edge of platform and fall off..

Xinan vs BRO1 and Hope vs Jack fights are really really fierce man. Cant wait to see the video.

If its a bigger FS with these fighting skill qualities, smaller FS don't have much chance to win more less to survive in the fierce fight.

Xonan is not in his normal form tat day doesn't seem want to engage in long fight or want to win. Since lost to Crossfire last week,..Xonan still like kecut/no mood to fight. I think maybe Xonan is in the process to become a chop also.
Hades oso got abit chop skill, tat day strong chop at Nexus. If Hades oso become a chop, it will a deadly chop coz of its BIG size.

In New FS vs Xinan and Hope matches, both my FS like no match to the New FS.
i feel my FS like looking for place to hide as the day is getting dark.

The weather that Sat evening kinda bad.... slight windy, raining, and sky getting dark fast coz about 7pm ady.. Normally spiders will sense the changes of the weather and will quickly find place for shelter. I oso think the FS oso abit blind at evening/dark place.

My FS HOPE and Xinan both have recover from their injuries. Ready to fight again.
Maybe next time we can let the FS fight on sunny hot day under shade will be good.
The FS will more more alert and ready to fight.

Hope to get more new big/large FS tat are good fighters.

Cheers,
v_viper88

This post has been edited by viper88: Apr 7 2008, 04:02 PM

Hiya.... the new FS i caught this morning lousy fighter..lost to SpitFire easily.

Since my FS recover ady from Sat FS fight, i let them fight 2nite.

Lotsa strong CHOPS attack from my top ranking FS : HOPES, XINAN and CROSSFIRE tonight!
I let my FS fight under 2 flourescent light! Its very bright so the FS can see properly:clap:

The FS fight tonight.

Xinan vs Trojan (Xinan won thrash Trojan easily)

Xinan vs Scorpio (1st Rd won by Xinan great chop technique! Xinan chop and grap Scorpio but get slam dunk by Scorpio till upside down instead! Xinan still won coz, Scorpio ran away after flip Xinan. 2nd Round won by Scorpio! Fight till on my finger coz have i extend the platform )

Hades vs Hope (Hades won! Can see Hope do some arm attack after chop attack. In 2nd round, Hope put up strong fight, both FS grab and chop each other few times. Hope lost and leg abit injured. Maybe injury from Sat FS fight still not recover properly yet.. TOO BAD my video not working .. din managed to record the fight, reaally wasted )

Hades vs CrossFire (CrossFire won!. Hades try to bite Crossfire but kena chop back. Hades cant stop Crossfire strong chop.. maybe too tired after fighting Hope.
CrossFire still not as active like last time but still very fierce. CrossFire chop attack is damn powerful! Even Hades a bigger FS also cant def/hold from Crossfire chop attack. )

Looks like my top rank FS all become fierce CHOP fighters already..
See the videos how they Chop and grab its opponent. The opponent also quite strong and able to break-free. Hmm.. maybe oso coz duwan to get injured badly from the fights and quickly ran away.

Link: http://download.yousendit.com/EC6CCA456F9D1EBA


Cheers,
v_viper88

This post has been edited by viper88: Apr 7 2008, 11:53 PM

ok, continue Sat's story...

Next fight is Xinan vs Bro1. Bro1 doesnt look healthy like xinan. Not really jumpy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ac8q0Xn_0Y
Holy cow! Critical injury match.

Top 2 fighters. Hope vs Jack. Hope was in top shape. Like just caught in the wild. Jack a bit like Bro1, not walking with jerkiness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJW6lDpWV-g
Death match. With such a powerful top down chop on the head and then stomach attack, the victim doesnt stand a chance... It was over in no time.

3-1 for Viper. Viper essentially won the team event with devastating results. Xinan and Hope is clearly chop now and killer chops too.

For completeness sake, next is Hades, the largest FS present, vs Longman, the largest one i've got.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sts8umOwAVE

In the end. 4-1 for viper. Viper owns the fiercest and most wicked FSs that day. What a blow for my team, albeit old team. I am left to bring home injured and dead warriors.

Kelapasawit is the only top 5 FS i got that still havent lost. So fight with Xinan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM66zGaB69E

With this i have no more FS to fight. Sigh.

Viper then fought his own FS. One of them is Scorpio vs Xonan, showing "the throw".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M88tU0ITv8

6 something. We proceeded to walk back to car, but because there were so many areas around us to catch some more FS, we did just that!

In the end, Viper caught another 3 males and i caught 4 males - 3 FS and one Bavia male!
Viper's FS was small to average, I got 2 average and one slightly bigger one...Nightstalker.
Anyway, we fought our 3 new FS. Here's where we held our final fights for the day..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlj1HTpXw_A

Viper's new FS all either lost or kecut.
So we proceed fight my new winner Nightstalker with Viper's Xinan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMXLAuBCtl0
What a surprise.

Next Nightstalker with Hope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW7aVRcPic0
Upset again!

Nightstalker vs Scorpio. Last fight for the night. Getting dark. About 7.30pm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPX8NCH95H0
Surprise again! Essentially a circular ranking.

Viper's Scorpio had the last win. Viper still have all his kings. I lost 2 old but precious fighters but gain a new good fighter. What an evening that was. What extreme fights.

Ganas man.. 2 Fatality from Saturday FS fight. Bro1 and Jack died...tried to stop the fight but still die.

In Xinan vs Bro1, both FS attk with arm bitting each other. Xinan is more aggresive and continue bite bro1 arm when its arm got breakfree.
When Bro1 try to retreat, Xinan chased and chop from back at Bro1 abdomen and fight till Bro flip upside down! Xinan continue bitting back Bro1 arm and don't want to let it go. Bro1 seems exhausted/fainted in upside down position.. not moving or try to breakfree. Looks like Xinan's venom already weaken Bro1...

In Hope vs Jack fight, Hope chop attack is too fast, powerful and totally demolish Jack defend. After chop, Hope in upside down position still grab tight and keep launch strong chop bites that penetrate Jack's arms and legs. Lotsa blood spilled out on the fighting platform when Jack try hard to breakfree from Hope. Jack's arm was injured badly and able to breakfree abit from Hope at the edge of the platform. This is where Hope deliver the final killer blow.. strong chop at Jacks head and abdomen.
After confim Jack is dead, we put Jack corpse back on the platform for Hope to eat. Hope saw Jack's corpse and immediately jump and chop again. The chop attck was so powerful till Hope itself turn upside down at the same time bitting Jack's corpse tightly. Hope then feast on Jack corpse and still grab it tightly without letting it ran away. Man.. even dead corpse oso Hope don't want to let it go.. must wack till die and eat them up.
If other normal FS, they will approach slowly and will leave once confirm its a the dead corpse. If the normal FS is hungry.. maybe it will eat the dead FS corpse.

Man.. my FS fight to kill.. strong bite and don't want to let go. Even when try to blow warm air, my FS still bite on tightly to ur FS.. have to use hand to push them few times only can breakfree them. I think next time we haf to use water spray to breakfree the FS fast if the FS try to ran or breakfree.

Your new FS: NightStalker is very active and alert at evening/dark time.. it can fight well and good at attacking FS weak spot like teeth, arm and leg!
My Xinan teeth kena bite and Hope leg kena bite oso by Nightstallker. Both my FS try to counter attack back few tmes but failed.
Your Nightstalker like a good tactical fighter.. attack its opponent weak body part thus blocking them from counter attack properly.

Theres 1st round when Xinan kena ambush by Nighstalker. Xinan seem like blind abit din realize or see properly. You haven't upload the video?
The teeth bitting is 2nd round.

By the time wanna fight HOpe with Nightstalker, its quite dark already. HOPE oso like blind and just simply chop Nightstalker without proper aim.
Leg kena bite and block Hope attack from hitting Nightstalker.

Too bad that Saturday raining and get dark quite fast, maybe next time we can meet up earlier in the noon time and fight our FS again.
Mindstorm, your 2 other new FS good fighter? You going to look for more new FS?

My current FS

HOPE
XINAN
SCORPIO
HADES

CROSSFIRE
NEXUS

XONAN
SPLITFIRE
KAIZER

Other sparring FS i've already let go.

Cheers,
v_viper88

This post has been edited by viper88: Apr 8 2008, 06:11 PM

Thanks for the vids. Sorry to hear of the loss of Jack and Bro1. They were at a disadvantage fighting Viper's bigger, healthier and younger spiders. Kinda proves the hypothesis of "peaking" at a certain point in the adult spiders' lives and then diminishing.

It's amazing how fast the spiders are converted to chops. Early on nobody had any chops. Now more than 1/2 the spiders are chops.
I guess if you want to mate them, you better do it before they lose interest in mating. Otherwise you'll have to catch good sized adolescent spiders and let them moult in captivity. As Liana wrote, you may never be able to breed slings to adults.

I'm surprised that you were able to find a male Bavia so quickly. It's exciting to know that they're still here despite the rampant development and pollution.

My FS are about the same size like Mindstorm FS. I don't think my FS are much younger oso coz fully matured already.

One thing i have to agree is my FS are more healtier and active compare to Jack & Bro1.
MY FS, Hope and Xinan oso have recover well from their earlier week injury due to fierce fight among each others..

Hope vs Crossfire
Xinan vs Crossfire/Xonan
Scorpio vs Hades

I feel maybe Jack & Bro1 still not fully recover/exhausted from their recent fight last week just before Saturday.
Jack vs Longman
Jack vs Bro1
Bro1 vs Longman.

On Saturday fs fight,
Jack not able to block Hope strong chop attack
Bro1 able to block Xinan and give some counter attack back.

If compare to my own fs fights tat nite.. only Scorpio and Hades able to block the chop attack few times.
The best block is from Scorpio, managed to block Crossfire chop and slam Crossfire upside down.
Nightstalker also able to block both chops from Hope n Xinan tat day.

Maybe chop fs fight differently.. more on attcks n less defensive techniques?

Cheers,
v_viper88

---

Added on April 9, 2008, 10:32 pmHere's tonight my own FS fight

SpitFire vs Kaizer (SpitFire won, long push)

SpitFire vs Nexus (SpitFire won. Nexus chop by kena wack back.. 1 teeth torn off )

Xonan vs Trojan (Xonan won. Arm pushing and Xonan chop once Trojan ran off )

Xonan vs Hades (Xonan won. Arm pushing, Hades chop 1x but Xonan counter attack by chop 3X back and won !)

Scorpio vs Xonan (Scorpio won. Arm pushing, Xonan chop 2x but later ran away. 2nd round just short arm pushing and Xonan gave up)

Crossfire vs Scorpio (Crossfire won. Crossfire chop 1st, Scorpio evade and counter attack with bite arm, grab each other and lifted Crossfire up!, Crossfire was too fierce and force Scorpio to retreat)
2nd round..Scorpio saw Crossfire and move close ready to fight. Crossfire saw n chop hard at Scorpio till both flipped upside down roll on the platform few rounds! After breakfree, Scorpio ran off)

Here's all the FS fight video.
http://download.yousendit.com/2EEFC8DD6B6B64D6

Cheers,
v_viper88

This post has been edited by viper88: Apr 9 2008, 10:33 PM

Lesson I learn from sat's fight is that if you see ur FS walking without jerkiness, most probably will kena hantam.

---------
Theres 1st round when Xinan kena ambush by Nighstalker. Xinan seem like blind abit din realize or see properly. You haven't upload the video?
The teeth bitting is 2nd round.
-----------
Wah, you can remember so well after so many fights. I thot that one short fight, no sure which is which so i din upload.

------------------
Mindstorm, your 2 other new FS good fighter? You going to look for more new FS?
----------------

Didn't really have have time to rank my FS yet since Sat. Sort of just feeding them at the moment. At the moment my FS in a "mess", dunno which is better than which. Only know maybe Longman and Nightstalker can fight.

Wah, viper, ur FS a lot of fighting.

Hades standard quite weird. In the earlier fights, can win Hope, but lose to Crossfire so many times.
Then also lose to xonan, which was ranked fourth and also visibly smaller. Hades also display fighting stance for long time, with arms wide apart.

Nexus looks like chop already?

Your FS still fighting very actively.

A bit of deviation from FS...

Here's my male Bavia today. The first pic eating a small cockroach i found in my room and the last pic in his makeshift habitat(see if you can spot him there). The FS is Longman.

Viper, in case u find one male Bavia during ur FS hunts, make sure catch it hor... Bavia fight!

I have one male and one female Bavia, just moulted not too long ago... I'm sure you know what is coming next. hehe.

This post has been edited by mindstorm: Apr 10 2008, 02:11 AM


Attached thumbnail(s)

Ya.. Nexus already become chop quite some time ago.. last time vs Kaizer time oso chop abit already.. time fight with Splitfire oso quite fierce chop.
After lost to Splitfire last time, i notice Nexus quite weak. After rest for few weeks, Nexus attack also still not fierce and not strong anymore. Either the venom or injury from fight not fully recover yet. Yesterday fight Nexus also lost to SpitFire and suffered a broken teeth.

Crossfire attack skill still strong but its leg still abit weak.

I test fight Scorpio/Hades vs Crossfire to see whether normal fs can defend/fight well or not with fierce chop.
It seems abit difficult if the chop FS launch a strong chop and managed to grab on its opponent. If the normal fs able to block well, then the FS will stand a better chance to fight back. From Scorpio fight vs Crossfire few days back, i can see Scorpio can fight well against Crossfire. Scorpio managed to block chop and counter back with chops to force Crossfire fight onto my finger. Hades oso can def from Hope chop attacks.

Here got one video where Hades kena chop and grab by HOPE but still able to breakfree and ran.
Link: http://download.yousendit.com/D97611253BC94E4D

I'm abit confuse how come that day when HOPE chop, Jack got injured quite badly. But when HOPE fight with my other FS, my other FS able to breakfree and ran away..

Ya.. ur Bravia spider is spider hantu.. i saw one bfr last time but no catch.. scary leh...

Quite big ....



Spider Hantu not fighting.. they just kill la


Cheers,
v_viper88

This post has been edited by viper88: Apr 10 2008, 11:54 PM

Hope managed to do the jump over on Jack and attack its abdomen but i think Hope didnt hang on. Hope somehow became upside down but can continue to grab and eventually bite the base of Jack's left arm , i think. I also think that was where all the blood came from. Also can see Jack left arm was severely crippled. Then later after that, the attack on Jack's abdomen underside was the truly fatal blow.

Jump over is a serious chop technique. Only when a FS is alert and fast can it be prevented.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7-5VOXZzFI

Previously, Jack oso jump over and attack other FS.. eg BigHead, BigLeave, Bro1 but all of them able to breakfree and ran.

I think its Hope tight grab and continue to attack after launch strong chop at Jack that cause Jack injured badly.

Jack saw Hope, ready to fight but unable to stop/block Hope chop attack.
Hope attack on Jack was very fast and fierce. The attack caused serius injury on Jack's arm and leg. Jack cant ran far due to the serious injury and the fight was over ady.

Other FS that caused serious injury when chop was Smallchop Vs Lily3. Lily3 arm was injured badly and cant bend.
Strong chop at enemy weak body part is deadly


My current FS.

HOPE
XINAN
CROSSFIRE
SCORPIO
XONAN
HADES
SPITFIRE
KAIZER

I've already let go Nexus this evening.

Cheers,
v_viper88

This post has been edited by viper88: Apr 11 2008, 09:55 PM

Today i fought my spiders but no good show because most of them not good fighters.

Long man
Nightstalker
Kelapasawit
Redleaf
IOImm
Justine
Jumper
Hogee
Destroyer

I will only keep top 4 and Destroyer. Tomorrow i let go others.
Redleaf getting bended arms so quite old already. Caught same time as jack i think.
Kelapasawit caught since CNY! Still can fight but can see slowing down.
I think Longman can challenge Hope. That day Longman kecut after losing to ur big Hades, so didnt fight with Hope.

Longman vs Nightstalker got 2-3 chops. Both times i fought them, Longman won.

Here is a mating of an elusive jumping spider species. Bavia mating...




Pretty smooth and violent-free mating but took such a long time...

Here's the clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcps8jkshHg

The Display Behavior of Bavia-Aericeps (Araneae, Salticidae), a Jumping Spider From Queensland

RR Jackson

Abstract

Bavia aericeps Simon is a large plurident jumping spider that frequents palms and other trees in tropical Queensland, building unusually strong and spacious nests on the undersides of leaves. The display repertoire of this species is large and complex, numerous distinct visual, vibratory, and tactile signals being used. Courtship is versatile, each male using one of three different mating tactics depending on the female's maturity and location. Type 1 courtship, involving specialized movements and postures of the legs, palps, and body, occurs if the female is an adult away from the nest; apparently this type of courtship is vision- dependent. If the male encounters an adult female inside her nest, he uses Type 2 courtship, which consists of movements that cause the silk to vibrate. If the female is a subadult inside her nest, the male initially uses Type 2 courtship, then builds a second chamber on the female's nest and cohabits until she moults and matures. Other displays occur during male-male and female-female interactions. Male-male interactions are particularly ferocious, the spiders often being upended and stunned. However, cannibalism seems to be of minor importance in this species.

Australian Journal of Zoology 34(3) 381 - 409

Full text doi:10.1071/ZO9860381

Comments: Same genus but dunno wheather same species. They're right about them building spacious nests. Look at the nest of my Bavia female which she built at the corner of the container. Double layer somemore.


-------------------------------------------------------

Here is a beautiful rather big vivarium.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b8XJmLC1Ls&feature=related
Vivarium is getting popular in the west because many people rearing poison arrow frogs. Imagine this vivarium has plant suitable for FS...then can rear a FS population inside....no need go out catch. To me a well designed vivarium is as beautiful and eye-awing as a well designed aquarium.

Here's this evening fight

Hades vs Trojan (Hades won) Bigger size will dominate..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmocUiAtb-g

Scorpio vs Trojan (Scorpio won) . Trojan try to attack Scorpio from the back/side but Scorpio an experienced fighter managed to defeat Trojan with ease.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMqEF2bPt8

Xonan vs Trojan (Xonan won) Not much fight... Trojan abit kecut ady. Feed Trojan with fat flies till fat fat but still not strong in fights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBRuIfcDaao


I've uploaded my other earlier fights video in youtube also.
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=dellxps888&p=r


Cheers,
v_viper88

one of my hobby at kampung.. way back when i was still a little boy...
hehehe... always all kotak mancis in my room...