6/2/2012
Well, I found a female Hogna helluo on a school Earth Science field trip, and I decided to keep her. (Sorry about the quality of some of the pics, my camera is not working correctly.)
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6/9/2012
She just laid an egg sac. It was interesting to watch the process.



6/24/2012
Her egg sac has been getting larger the past few days. I transferred her to a container with more floor space, to make separating the spiderlings from the mother easier.










7/5/2012
Her egg sac is massive, it can't be too much longer until the spiderlings emerge. I will post pics when they do.

I'm only going to keep the mother and a few of the slings, the rest I will release. (I won't have room for all of them.)

7/11/2012
Well the egg sac hatched a couple days ago (7/8/2012) but I didn't get pics until now.
























7/17/2012
Most of the spiderlings have dismounted from the mother's abdomen.

All spiderlings have dismounted from the mother, most have spread throughout the entire enclosure while some remain close to the mother and occasionally walk on her. The mother will be removed within a few days and the spiderlings will be separated into smaller groups shortly after.

That is an AWESOME photo set. I found one of these a few years ago, and always thought it was a species people should keep. The orange dorsal stripe is quite attractive for a wolf spider. Although now that I look, I see a few dealers carrying them.

Christian

Thanks! It's a very underrated species. Quite common where I live though, which is nice.

Very awesome photo set...wouldn't mind owning one of those.

NIce. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks guys.
I've now separated the mother, I will probably separate the spiderlings into smaller groups within the next few days.

I hope to stir up more interest in true spiders, so please keep us updated on the growth of the babies.

Will do, it's a shame that not many people are as interested in "true" spiders.

We can work to change that though. I think the false tarantulas and wolf spiders offer huge benefits over the jumping spiders as non-tarantula pets.

I agree with you on that. Huntsmen spiders are also nice.

AMAZING photos! Thank you so much for sharing!

Very lovely and interesting photos. I LOVE the photos of the spider ball on momma's back. Can you see how they are holding each other? Fangs? Legs? Not dissimilar to scorpions in their maternal care it would seem. Thanks for sharing!!!!

Thanks, yes they are not dissimilar to scorpions when it comes to caring for their young.

Well, it was unavoidable...............there have been heavy losses due to cannibalism. I'm guessing about 20 (perhaps less) survived. I've released about half of them and I am now left with 10 healthy individuals. (They are in separate containers.) They are all eating and doing well, the mother is doing good as well.