Tarantula Breeding Log, Pics, and Video

Here is my female.


Here are the two males.


5/19/08
I placed one male inside the female's cage but once he touched the females web he crawled back into the little plastic container I transported him in and didn't move. I removed him and placed the 2nd male into the females container. Once this male touched the females web he started searching for her. They went through an awesome courtship full of vibrating and drumming. After mating they backed away from each other. I removed the male and the female kept searching for him around the cage before returning to rest in the corner. I posted some pics and a video of the cortship and mating below. You can see a closeup of pedipalp insertion in the video. I'd fullscreen it. A little shaky in a few spots but not too bad.

 

Here is the video link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBvCgo5RGw

 

5/19/08
I placed the male that didn't mate yesterday in with the female. Today he wasn't shy and did his thing. Here are a few shots.


After I took the male out the famale laid on her back for quite awhile.

 

What do your human females think of this hobby?

I lived in west Texas in years past. Used to sit on the porch at night and toss pieces of weenies out in the yard. The tarantulas would pounce on them

Certain times of the year, they migrate. Some remote highways have black splotches all over them.

Why DID the tarantula cross the road?



x

 

My fiance is cool with it. She even bought me a few of mine as presents.

The same reason lots of males do lots of dangerous stuff lol, females. All those tarantulas you see migrating are out searching for female's burrows.

 

i love tarantulas.
beautiful photos

 

If this wasn't so interesting, this thread would have given me nightmares. LOL. But thank you for sharing, it was neat. I never really thought about tarantula breeding or how they did it until now. The video was especially educational, their mating dance is amazing!

 

I agree. They have the strangest mating ritual. Also how the male uses his front legs(pedipalps) to mate is bizzare. They are like little aliens. There are so many species, color varieties, sizes, etc. Some are burrowers, terrestrial, or aboreal. It's so hard to only have one. It's an addicting hobby. Like growing mushrooms lol.