After seeing a post on a Facebook wildlife group of a possible sighting of a male Tarantula Wolf Spider, it gave me some enthusiasm to check on one of the local females, one that lives very close to the Quinta. It was quite a surprise……
The Tarantula Wolf Spider, not be confused with the Wolf Spider is the species where the original name Tarantula comes from, rather than post all the information, please see my Algarve Resident Article – Tarantula Wolf Spider.
She was at the entrance to her burrow when I arrived and as normal she wasn’t too bothered about my presence, they are not normally like this!
{Click image(s) to view on Flickr - opens in new tab}You’ll notice from the photos that the entrance doesn’t have it’s usual weaved entrance (made of grass and web), for some reason it was about 20cm away, maybe the rain we’ve had recently washed it away or maybe something else, she came right to the front and I noticed that two of her front left legs are missing! A battle with an intruder a bird, or…..wait a minute, did I just notice a…….
She retreated back inside and I could just see through the opening that she has an egg sack, so she has mated! Great news! More Tarantulas on the way!
Could her loss of legs be due to a fight with the male as they can often eat the males after mating, I’ll never know, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering her. Soon enough, she came right out of the burrow and didn’t care about me being just 30cm away. I suspect she was out to start replacing the weave of her nest. Of course, what may happen is that she will close the entrance whilst the eggs hatch, this is what I witnessed at another burrow a while back.
I snapped these great photos of her. Hopefully, I’ll get some shots of her with her babies in time.