On August 5, I was in Lethbridge, Alberta and I came across an immature female black widow (L. hesperus I assume) in a big tangled web covering a patch of clay on the south facing slope of a hill along the Oldman River. Examining the web more closely I found 2 males as well. I was quite excited having never seen a black widow in the wild before!:eek: I captured all 3 and within 2 weeks of having them home, the female had moulted twice and approximately doubled in legspan!

This is a pic I took of her on the clay where I found her. The colouration was surreal:
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/majorvoltage/Pets/32effb72.jpg

When the female reached maturity, I picked the male with the most red on it and dropped him in with her. When he first walked onto her web, she lunged at him and he retreated quickly. Then he began vibrating his abdomen and taking careful steps towards her. After a while her abdomen began to vibrate as well and he continued his approach until he got close enough to reach out with his legs and stroke hers. After a while of stroking her while she didn't move, he began to mate with her. They mated on and off for about an hour and a half and eventually the male moved to the other side of the web and they ignored eachother for the next hour until I took him out. The mating took place on August 21.

I managed to get some shots of the 2 of them:
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/majorvoltage/Pets/68bb53bc.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/majorvoltage/Pets/27ec0db1.jpg

And a video:
http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/majorvoltage/Pets/?action=view¤t=MVI_0002.flv

Does anyone know what the normal gestation period is? I've been keeping her at around room temperature on average (although it does get quite warm during the day) and have been keeping her well fed on crickets. It's been over a month and she hasn't shown any sign of making an eggsack. I moved her out of the cage I had her in before, and put her in a tall glass jar that I hope to raise the babies in until they reach a manageable size. My plan is to wait until she lays her eggsack and then put her back in her normal cage. That way the babies will already have a web made by the mother and I don't have to disturb the eggsack at all. The jar has paper towel on the bottom and some sticks extending about 2/3 of the way up the jar. The spider built her web up to the top of the sticks but no higher because she can't climb the glass walls. I'm hoping the same will be true of the babies. That way they will stay in the bottom 2/3 of the jar so that when I open the lid, they don't drop out of it and scatter. I suppose being smaller, they're probably better climbers than the adults so I shouldn't get my hopes up on that. I might have to try the sewing machine oil trick I read about in another thread. For ventilation I drilled a large hole in the lid and stuffed it with a cotton ball. I'm not sure if this will be enough though and I'm considering buying an aquarium air pump to create better airflow. I would just drill a small hole in the lid for the hose and attach an airstone on the end to prevent the spiderlings from climbing into the hose.

Here's a pic of my current setup:


And a closeup of my girl in her new home:


When the babies hatch, I plan on feeding them 1 week old crickets, unless someone knows where to get wingless fruit flies here in Calgary?

So I was wondering how long it might be before she makes an eggsack? How long will it take the eggsack to hatch? Any tips that might improve my chances of success?

I'm hoping to get at least 20 females out of the batch (too ambitious?), so I guess I'll have to seperate them pretty early on or just keep them really well fed so they don't cannibalize eachother. I have been told that adult females can be communal if they're kept well fed and given enough space so I've set up an exo terra glass terrarium with some rocks and sticks, and have silicone sealed any possible escape routes.

Any tips or testimonies would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Graham

Great pics and great video, I don't know about their gestation period but if you search the forums I think you'll find a useful thread I read 1 a while back about Widows.

Nice find! Most definitely a L. hesperus! That first pic is of a immature...

When I got home today I looked in my black widow's cage and she has an eggsack! I had given up on her making one and had moved her into the big exo terra cage. I guess now I'll have to remove the eggsack and put it in the jar. I hope she's not going to get too mad at me. The time between the mating and the laying of the eggsack was exactly 50 days, so the one month estimate I had read wasn't quite accurate, or maybe she's a special case?

Here's some pics:



Graham

Congrats! But do you have any idea what you have gotten yourself into? Pretty soon there will be so many baby widows you wont even know what to do with them. Make sure the holes in the lid are small enough where the babies cant get through, or youll have lots of angry and concerned neighbors/relatives. LOL

I know that they will cannibalize eachother to a certain extent but I'm still hoping to get quite a few to adulthood. I plan to keep half a dozen of the best looking females in a big communal cage and I'm going to sell some of the others. If I have a lot of extra I will see if any local universities or the zoo want some for study or display. I'll probably just give away most of the males, but I'll save the most colourful males to give to anyone who wants to breed them. If I end up with way too many adults I can always make a trip back down to Lethbridge in the spring and let them go back in their natural habitat.

The vent holes in the exo terra cage she's currently in are way too big to keep spiderlings in so I'm going to have to take the eggsack out and put it in my rearing jar sometime before they hatch. According to what I've read, I have about a month.

I hope she doesn't get too angry at me when I take the eggsack out. She'll probably think I'm trying to eat it. How do you reassure a spider that you're doing what's best for her babies? I've heard they can be pretty defensive when they're guarding an eggsack so I'll have to watch my fingers.

Graham

Best of luck! A communal widow setup would be really cool to see! And yes, she probably will get aggressive as most widows do when their eggsac is messed with. Good luck!