A surprise in a brown paper bag!

11-3-10 Marti called me on her cell. "I have a surprise for you," hmm, what could it be. She probably found a stach of aluminum cans to add to my collection. No, it was in a lunch bag. I peered in. A traranula! A beautiful all black, about 2 1/2 inch leg span. More slender and with finer hair than you usually see on the brown ones. I think it must be a young male adult. It was out on the mountain road looking for a mate.

I put him in a plastic gallen jar, added some ceadar bedding and a little house. He is so fine, he moves on tiptoes, elegantly. I put two crickets in the jar this morning. He quickly captured one with his fangs, after a few minutes the other one blundered into the spider's leg. The spider caged the cricket under him pushing him back with his legs. Then he picked up that cricket too. One on each fang? He still had both crickets on his fangs a half hour latter. How long does it take to subdue, disolve, and digest two crickets?