It's what we call Golden spider. Also known as Mangrove jumper (Ligurra Latidens). You're describing a male L. latidens.
They're the best fighters I know of, pound for pound, but they can't swim.

http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/guidebooks/s...ra_latidens.htm

Yes, we (Mindstorm & I) got one last year (Cam, the Cameron Highland male) and another a few weeks ago at Lookout point, a female. I don't have any pictures though. Here's the youtube link for Cam.
Cam

It's a different species of Thiania. Wikipedia says there are 17 species of Thiania. It's sufficiently different from T. bhamoensis that they may not even recognize each other. The female was chased away by a male that I had without a mating dance. Viper's giant Bu was yet another species but we couldn't find any of those. I doubt they are better fighters though.

Some pics of my new setup for the sub-adult Hyllus (moulted yesterday).

This post has been edited by Mangrovejumper: Feb 10 2009, 10:21 AM


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I call them grass spiders. They are also known as lynx spiders. Scientifically Oxyopes sp.
Oxyopes
They have weak eyesight (similar to crab spiders) and they run very fast, so they are not worth keeping.

Mindstorm: Chop from behind is not good lah. If you hurt the spider then you no longer can play with it. Unless you want to use the victim as food, like we did with the Telemonia spiders. (BTW...off topic...I have to say Fuiyo to your believers vs nonbelievers posts, man. Better than the golden spider chop transparent spider Fuiyo).

My Hyllus is doing really well. The weather has warmed up and it's now easier to find food for her. I no longer put her nest in the bottle because she won't wander far from the nest. So the fake plant just sits on the counter in the spider room. She'll only come out if the sun is shining on the leaf, and then go back in when it's shaded.

Hyllus semicupreus

This post has been edited by Mangrovejumper: Apr 7 2009, 10:43 AM

Wow, this thread has taken off with the posters from across the causeway.

Mindstorm, you should be familiar with those places, since you worked on a fish farm way back then!

Soft plastic leaves are just fine. The spider can't tell the difference. Make sure that the fake leaves have a rough surface though, for the spider to get enough traction. Plastic plants also allow you to bend/arrange them without breaking, so that you can always have a good view of your spider inside. Amd of course, they never get dry out or rot.

Krauser: Can you take a picture of your big jumper and post? We can probably ID it.

Mindstorm: S'pore can be combed because it is small and well developed. The same cannot be said about Lembah Kelang. We did a pretty good job of hitting the public parks and some hot spots though. I still prefer the near the highway foliage, but I like non FS types as well. No luck finding any Phiddipus here so far. I don't think they live here. I'll have to go out of state and bring one back if I want one. The jumping spiders here are very tame. I've played around with a few species and most of the time they will look and then ignore each other. Not very interesting.

It's sad to read that a lot of the good fighters are dead. I think that's the more reason to film them. It's the only record we have of them and what we will remember them by. Sounds like you guys have caught some sub-adults and mistakenly called them females. Once they have reached adulthood, they no longer moult.

As previously mentioned in this thread (but always good to refresh), chop male FS (sup pao, kop pao) cannot mate. They seemed to have lost their knowledge and ability to approach females. It has been tried many many times, and none has succeeded.
If you want to breed the large males, you have to do it before you convert them.

I agree with Krauser that it's better to bring spare casual clothes in a bag, so that you can change before a FS hunting expedition. I did that regardless of whether it's needed or not. Always nice to have dry clothes to wear after getting caught in a heavy downpour.

Trevally:

Very good job of creating a natural habitat for the FS.

You should consider covering the water supply a bit with some of that green netting. Weaker/Older FS may drown if they don't swim very well. Also, can try rough plastic plants (not the waxy kind) so that you don't have to change the leaf out frequently. Mindstorm even used whole small plants in his containers instead of leaves, so they won't become yellow and wither.

Second nature to TS lah. Way back when he used to do early morning flower study in S'pore, and measuring fish length on fish farm after that.

I also ordered the book that you suggested (post #1788). I read the excerpt and thought that it contained information that I'm not aware of. I may review some interesting parts of it here once I've read it.

I finally let my Hyllus female go...among my lettuce and zuchini plants earlier this week. She was having problem gripping on steep surfaces and not very coordinated (tried to pounce on some smaller preys but missed multiple times). Dying in a natural environment just sounded more appealing than dying on a fake plastic leaf in the spider room indoors. All in all, I kept her for 5 1/2 months since she was an adolescent (3 moults to adulthood).

Until disproved, I still believe it's an infection. Something is messed up in the spiders' brains and they become like zombies...just eat, eat, eat. Shows no fear in repeated fights, shows no interest in mating. It's something that seems to be transmitted by contact with other chopsters. And now I'm also adding that they may not live very long either, judging from the feedback from the group. Certain FS that don't convert have stronger immune systems, perhaps? Maybe someone can keep a chopster without fighting him and just to see how he can live.

Just a minor point of clarification. Spiders do not have olfactory organs so technically, they cannot smell. They may be able to taste though...I had a webweaver kill another spider earlier this month and while trying to eat it, it accidentally sucked on the poop that came out of the dead spider. It took a while for webweaver to figure that out and then it had to vigorously clean its mouth.


fsnow55:
I don't know anything about your observation of multiple spiders on the banana tree. Perhaps it was a whole group of slings coming out of a nest if it was agitated. It's certainly not normal behaviour for adult jumping spiders.

Depending on where you are, you can probably pick up a Phiddipus sp. or two. I know Mindstorm is dying to see them face off. I couldn't find any in my region (Seattle area) so they are probably not indigenious to the northwest.

Looks like a subadult male with a final moult remaining.

I started a new experiment. One of my jumpers laid a clutch of eggs a few months ago. They have now hatched and I let them all go except a fat one, which I'm going to try to rear it to adulthood. It's very small, but it has been eating thrips (a type of small insect) that I can find in my garden. We'll see how long it takes to get to full size.

Good job, Mindstorm. With quick generational turnover like that, I think it's best to mate the big males as much as possible. Catch, mate and release virgin females, and then look for the adult children in 3-4 months.

I'm doing something similar here, but my baby spider is taking much longer to grow. Perhaps it's temperature/environment related.
It left the nest as a hatchling on Aug 14th. Today it is still only slightly bigger than a hatchling.

The area around Pusat Bandar Damansara used to be a haven for FS. Now a lot of the land has been developed and there is not much wild area left to hunt. You'll still see some pockets of woody areas, but it's not the same anymore. I hadn't had much luck with Plaza Damansara surroundings, but of course that was many years ago. It may be better now. Mindstorm and I did go up to the high point on Setiabistari 2 years ago. We didn't find much except plenty of kerengga nests.

I can confirm that the orange Thianias are available in Cameron Highlands. In my opinion, the jungle FS are skinny and small due to lack of food. The yellow ones look very very interesting.

Pics of my T. sub female. From Honolulu. Mindstorm if you ever take a vacation, perhaps you should consider Hawaii as a destination.

I didn't spend enough time there. I only had 5 mins between touristy activities. I'm sure if given more time I would have found a male. The park I went to showed a lot of potential for T. subs.
I need to make a return trip there at some point.

BTW, I don't think the male from Cameron Highlands was a T. sub. It's some other type of Thiania.

I think the T. subs in Hawaii probably arrived at the island via human transport (i.e. boats delivering flora) from Asia. It's the common mode of transfer for most spiders. Web weavers often travel in crates and boxes from warehouse to warehouse.

The jumping spider site shows how many species of Thiania there are. It would be awesome to get the less common ones found and photographed.

Well my T. subopressa moulted after I've kept him for 4 months. He turned out to be a good sized male but unfortunately he didn't survive the moult. I found him at the bottom of the plant yesterday morning, dead.

I'll have to make a return trip to Hawaii to get few more. They seem to be bigger than T. bhamoensis.