This thread is created for one reason ONLY.

Should this mating end up successful, I would have claim to the "locally bred" cliche.

The female shown here is sub adult. On introducing the male to her enclosure, things went very slowly. I had to prompt the male towards her burrow. He vibrated once, then it was all fun and games. The female came out of her burrow, almost on her back.

The male retreated, she followed.



This went on for about half an hour, untill she had him cornered. He turned around and started flirting back.



As everything happened on the side of the enclosure, I was able to get a good pic of the insert, I think rarely seen from this angle.



Closer view of the insert.



That's that.

Thanx all, I am not holding my breath... YET...

Unfortunately, offspring from this specific spider are NEVER cheap. For me they are exceptional because they are baboons, very hardy, very stuborn and VERY fiesty. Above all that, a M balfouri female on a silky white web is probably the most beautiful thing you will ever encounter in the spider world. (Depending on your taste as always.) Then of course, they are beyond rare, not only in SA, but also in other countries, not to mention in Sekotra, Yemen, their natural home.

We wait...

I will let BoobTube do the talking.

This is a vid of my second M balfouri egg sac.

So here is the deal...

I pulled the sac one day early, and thankfully so.

On opening, I found a few black/dead eggs and removed. Some eggs seemed unfurtilized with no development at all. On inspection under the microscope, I found a few eggs, probably about nine or ten that seemed half developed. A minute little carapace and stubbs that resemble leggs were clearly visible, but seems to have stopped developing for some unknown reason.

Total eggs with legs... three.

Now this seems ridiculous to most, but to me it is three little Monocentropus balfouri that were not here before, and THAT is magnificent IMO.

I will not be selling them, but rather grow and continue breeding.

I will give the winner of the Logo competition R1200 in cash.

The game continues.

HS:

Out of interest, are there more M.Balfouris in the country that come from a different source? I am referring to the scenario of inbreeding due to limited availability?

I have been able to obtain M balfouri from five different gene pools. They are all marked B1 to B5. The three babies from this female will be B1/2 because I mated B2 female with two B1 males. As for the future, I will keep mating B2 female with any males other than from B1/2 batch... and so on.

I don't know how many M balfouri are in the country, but I know it's not a lot in comparison to L klugi for example. Spiders can safely breed with siblings and or parents for a few generations (I think eight generations) before complications become visible. This is not based on fact and I can't remember where I came accross this info, perhaps uncle Stan will fill in the blanks. He did call me "my child" afterall... :laugh:

In my breeding program for these spiders, the chanses of "inbreeding" is virtually zero because of the above explained gene soup...

ArJay:

Any photos of the dud egg sack and surviving slings?

You are able to see the three developed eggs with leggs, the others are not fully developed or not developed at all.


One little shining star.


Marula:

Did you count how many eggs came out in all?

No I didn't on Tuesday, but now I did on the picture. Looks like about fifty. To my understanding, this is slightly more than could be expected with M balfouri producing low averages of offspring, counts of 25 to 45 is often mentioned.

The more I think about this particular excersise, the better I feel about the three that made it.

I continue happily...

Update...

I was sitting looking at a cricket flirt with a cockroach on Friday. I looked up and there, lo and behold, another M balfouri egg sac. (Number three)

Came home Sunday after a wild weekend in da bushes... female number four sitting with a sac...

Will be pulling both after 21 days, hoping for the best. Three slings from two sacs. I hope the odds are on the rise...

There is hope for the winner of the Logo Competition.