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January 15, 2002

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* Killer? *
Ever shake hands with a killer? Here's another picture of the Black Widow Spider I had for a while. Now I read somewhere that only the mature adult females are deadly. The resources I got this information from didn't go into detail but from what I could determine, from the size and markings on her back, my little Black Widow was not yet mature. I let her crawl on my arm and hands for a little while but it still freaked me out.

An amazing thing happened while I had her.
    I had gone away for a weekend and when I returned and looked into the
spider habitat I found what appeared to be another spider carcass in there.
This really baffled me since I had left a lid on the container and there was
surely no way for another spider to get in there.
    The carcass' body seemed to be much smaller than the Black Widow's and,
of course, withered. But the legs looked to be very much the same size and
length.
    It also appeared to be a dark brownish color. This perplexed me for a
moment.
    I was thinking that maybe another spider had somehow gotten in and she
ate it. Then I thought the almost impossible, that maybe a male Black Widow
had found his destiny. But how would he have gotten in there? Where did he
come from? Are their senses and motivation that great?
    I wondered around for a while analyzing and thinking about it and
finally figured out what had happened.

    Spiders (Arachnids) are exoskeleton, which means their skeleton is on
the outside. Like crustaceans, the only way for these types of creatures to
grow is to molt, or shed, the outer layer of skin many times before they
reach maturity. This leaves what appears to be another spider but is
actually just their old skin.
    After further analysis I noticed that her abdomen was soft and dull.

        She's was growing.

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