There hasn’t been much fertility in this lab, and I don’t know what’s going on. The spiders are getting weird and lazy. Here’s Yara (last seen here), who has been building thick clumpy cobwebs and also assembling debris into a nest — she’s partly obscured by a wood shaving here. The strange thing is above her, and to the left.
Those are unhappy looking eggs enclosed in a thin web, not an egg sac. I can say with some confidence that they’re not going to develop.
This is awkward and annoying. Next week I’m going to sterilize cages with alcohol and set up new frames and repopulate, hoping this problem will go away. Maybe they’re stressed? Maybe they’re just old and lapsing into decrepitude?
Has the dark/light cycle changed? Temperature change, due to overnight energy conservation?
Sudden changes in orientation would send me looking at a change in light polarization.
So, the spiders are acting weird. And you’ve been swapping around male spiders to get some breeding done. Hmm…
Is there such a thing as spider syphilis?
What do your colleagues in other spider labs have to say? Any others around academia with the same species?
Provided a spacious, comfy, predator free home. Given huge amounts of food and waited on hand and foot by a personal servant. It’s not decrepitude, it’s decadence. They are taking you to the cleaners.
So they really are cats.
Maybe they can’t adjust to the new habitats/lifestyle change?
Presumably, their diet would be much more diverse in the field… Perhaps, a steady diet of captive-reared fruit flies and worms is lacking some essential nutrient…?
You used the word, “cages.” Could this be a problem? Maybe they need a larger environment. I’m thinking a refrigerator box, perhaps?