u/AffectionateKoala963

I was attempting to feed this tunnel gal the other night when she fled out her back door from the mealworm and started frantically running around the enclosure scrambling at the walls (they can’t climb plastic so they just slide their legs up and down on the walls in a manner very similar to what my cat would do on the back door window to get let inside lol). I believe she is most likely getting ready to moult and that’s why she ran from her dinner..

Against my better judgment I couldn’t resist providing a finger for her to climb up. I say against my better judgment because especially with the smaller ones they end up running up your arms and onto your back or jumping onto the floor and hiding under things lol but this lady is one of my larger ones and she was really calm once she got onto my hands and moved at a nice slow stroll when she did move and sat still for photos in between.

Just a gorgeous animal, I love her so much!

It’s tunnel time, I know you wanna tunnel but you can’t tunnel here!

These are definitely one of my favourite NZ salticids. Big booty is definitely giving female but I found one similarly well endowed recently who went and moulted into a male! Haven’t checked to see if I can see an epigyne yet.

Just went out after work to say hi to some trapdoor spiders :D cut the audio cause I’m too embarrassed about how I baby talk to spiders in a high pitched voice 😆

These photos document my friend Tunnel Lady building her house! I had to change out the surface planting partway through because the colourful Fittonia was getting pulled over by webbing lol.

She has a cover that goes over the transparent side to keep out light and I was hoping that would prevent her from webbing up the acrylic side so I could still see her but apparently she still wasn’t cozy enough!

She’s currently recovering from moulting inside and I can see her moult down at the bottom so I’m just waiting for her to take it and push it out of the burrow which they typically will do once their new exoskeleton has hardened up.

I love how they dig out excess dirt and transport it all the way up to incorporate into their tunnel entrances, she seems to be making a full thatched roof 😅

Anyone know what he’s doing? He (or she) caught it and stayed locked in biting it for about 5 mins then presumably once it was paralysed started trying to move the cricket around while still holding on with its fangs it pulled it up onto the leaves to the left then moved it up onto the wall and then started this whole performance - I’m guessing he’s laying down silk to stick it to the wall or something? He did this for about 4 mins and then went back and bit the leg this time and is still there feeding on the leg atm

It’s insane how easily she pulls that meal worm up!

It’s so adorable, he created these two thick silk walls on either side of him in the tube I put up at the top of the enclosure while he was moulting and now if I shine a light in he sticks his front legs through and pulls the silk down and sits there staring at me 😂

Ocrisiona leucocomis is an introduced salticid from Australia, however i believe it is considered naturalised and non invasive. Apparently 17-18mm is the top end of their size range which is exactly how big this gal was! Compared to the max 14mm size of our largest native salticid Trite planiceps - she is a monster! A very friendly, slow moving calm monster.. but huge!

Ps apologies for my disgusting nail bitten landscaper fingers 😅

Stopped on the way home to look for Holoplatys appressus specimens at the park and located a presumed male and female jumper on the bark of a puriri tree in close proximity.

iNat not giving anything more than salticidae family. The animal it most resembles the I know of is Hinewaia embolica but the pattern and colouration are not quite consistent.

Incredibly cryptic in habitat, only visible due to movement. Gorgeous spiders. Banding on legs, male has black front legs like genus Trite often does (although the poor fellow is missing one). Prosoma and opisthosoma covered in dull green and brown ‘camo’ pattern.

Gorgeous animals. Behaviour and temperament is most similar to genus Trite, they are guarded but curious - not frantically fleeing as Maratus griseus would - but flinching at sudden movement and maintaining vigilance.

Interestingly the ‘female’ reminds me of a female/juvenile cyclops spider with a camouflage palette swap while the male is proportionally more reminiscent of genus Trite.

On the off chance there’s any kiwis in this sub. Anyone seen these fellows before?

Stopped on the way home to look for Holoplatys appressus specimens at the park and located a presumed male and female jumper on the bark of a puriri tree in close proximity.

iNat not giving anything more than salticidae family. The animal it most resembles the I know of is Hinewaia embolica but the pattern and colouration are not quite consistent.

Incredibly cryptic in habitat, only visible due to movement. Gorgeous spiders. Banding on legs, male has black front legs like genus Trite often does (although the poor fellow is missing one). Prosoma and opisthosoma covered in dull green and brown ‘camo’ pattern.

Gorgeous animals. Behaviour and temperament is most similar to genus Trite, they are guarded but curious - not frantically fleeing as Maratus griseus would - but flinching at sudden movement and maintaining vigilance.

Interestingly the ‘female’ reminds me of a female/juvenile cyclops spider with a camouflage palette swap while the male is proportionally more reminiscent of genus Trite.

Anyone seen these fellows before?

These are my two Trite planiceps aka Black Headed Jumping Spiders.

The larger one with the yellow-brown abdomen is a captive bred individual named Ember.

The smaller one with the mainly black abdomen is a wild caught individual who I found looking like he was starving to death, his abdomen was so small I was concerned he might have damaged his fangs. I took him home with the intention of just feeding him and he has been gobbling up fruit flies no problem but I have grown attached and decided to keep him. I’ve been calling him Tiny for obvious reasons.. he’s about the size of an ant but at some point that name will no longer fit so suggestions are welcome!

Fun fact: the markings on these guys abdomens fluoresce green under UV!

I tried to introduce these two Maratus griseus peacock spiders to see if I’d see any courtship behaviors and although the male didn’t do his courtship dance I did get to observe something I read about where if a female has already mated she will mirror the male courtship behaviour back at him to let him know he better shove off. She (the lighter coloured one) lifts her third pair of legs in the air while raising her abdomen and swaying it back and forth. This is what the males do in between approaching the female and zigzagging back and forth advancing and retreating.

I only caught it when rewatching the video as in the heat of the moment I thought she had just been throwing up a more generic threat pose. She did it a couple more times before the male attempted to pounce at her which prompted me to shut it down and separate them since he hadn’t shown any courtship behaviour I was concerned he might see her more as prey than a potential mate.

But it was really cool to see that from her and now I know she has mated in the wild before I found her so could potentially lay an egg sac at some point!