I caught Hahriette on my bedroom blinds back in January and with it being so cold outside, I didn't have the heart to toss it out. However, my wife does not like spiders and didn't want me to keep it around, so I did the only thing I could do. I took her to work and kept her in a plastic container.
I have been stopping at Petco once every couple weeks to by a few small crickets and she would feast on them, one every day or two until they ran out and I would wait a week before buying more. A gruesome but interesting thing I noticed is that Hahriette tends to eat the crickets from the back first. Almost every time, she would consume everything but one jumping leg and the head. I believe she doesnt like the head and the one leg just happens to fall loose as she eats.
It is a common believe that spiders will catch their prey and suck the blood from them. The truth is the fangs are used to inject venom and somewhat to hold the pray as it eats. Spiders actually do have mouth parts they use to actually eat their prey.
Near the end of February, Hahriette started spinning a web. This surprised me because to my knowledge, Jumping Spiders only used web as anchor lines. They will attach the web to the surface they are on before they jump or when they walk on ceilings or such. This way, if they miss the jump or fall from the surface, they have the safety line to catch them. In this case, Hahriette started creating a sac in the corner of her cage and then once it was thick enough, she crawled into it. It turns out that jumping spiders will do this to molt. A few days later, she crawled out of the web, leaving behind a shell of herself.
Presently, Hahriette has orange spots on her back. This is typical for younger jumping spiders. As they become adults, the spots will change from orange to white. I am expecting the spots to change the next time she sheds her outer shell.
Twice since I have had her, I have played what I now refer to as "Beyond Spider Dome". In both cases, I found Steotodas which I placed in the container with Hahriette. I had read before that the Steatoda is known for hunting dangerous spiders like Black Widows, and I wanted to know what would happen between them. Since I still Have Hahriette, the answer to what happened is obvious. Hahriette is the reigning champion of Spider Dome. In both cases, she wasted no time in moving into position and leaping on the Steotoda to make a quick meal of the smaller spider. I am looking forward to seeing what happens if I put a Wolf Spider of comparable size in with her.
At full size, Hahriette is approximately 5/8 of an inch including the legs. If she was to spread them out, I might say 3/4". The picture below is not the best quality, but it is good for understanding her size, since everyone is familiar with the size of a quarter.
Hahriette seams to be thriving in the container I have for her. I may look into moving her into one a little larger soon. As a little something different, I think I will be reporting on future episodes of Spider Dome. I will not be venturing outside to look for opponents, but any spider that ventures into my domain, will be doing so at the risk of entering "Beyond Spider Dome" and facing the current champion. I do hope that will continue to be Hahriette. We will see. :o)