Belleville's Egg Sac Hatched!

[Andee]

So Belleville has been guarding her obviously fetile egg sac for 2-3 weeks now. She has been a good mom, often forgoing food and worrying the hell out of me in order not to go too far from her sac. It's taken about 1.5 weeks for me to really get down feeding her as she protected her brood. Well the egg sac hatched now, an obvious tear appeared it in it a couple days ago. Though I didn't see any of the babies leave. About a day after the tear appeared they wandered about 1 millimeter away and then wandered back. Now there are daring to venture as far as 1/4 of an inch away as long as mama Belleville is near by. It seems this species is dependent on the sac for finishing development for the last few days after a hatch. Belleville is an amazingly good mom. I knew this species was very protective of their young. Reminding somewhat of T species and wolf spiders, but I never realized how much so. I wanted to check on the development of the babies. Had to do so with my jeweler's loop which shines a mildly bright led light in the area of magnification. Belleville did not appreciate the intrusion and immediately moved to shield her wandering babies. lmao I will likely remove her within a week since that's when things will likely be getting a bit more cramped. But right now things look like all is going as planned

 

[kinyonga]

@Andee No baby photos??

 

[Andee]

Sadly no, not only would Belleville not approve, but these babies are no bigger than a ball point tip, so a camera flash and jeweler's loop would be needed. But I will send you maternity photos of chubby Belleville

 

[kinyonga]

She was definitely chubby. I just wanted to see which spider it was. Thanks! Hope she and the babies do well!

 

[Andee]

Idk if you have ever seen her. I talk about Queenie a lot, which is the same species as Belleville. Idk if you have this species in Canada. This species is called Badumna Longinqua. They aren't a native species here, they are a hitchhiker from australia, but haven't done real harm here yet.

 

[kinyonga]

I've never seen one here...doesn't mean they aren't though!

 

[Andee]

These guys love coastal areas, it's one reason they do so well where I am. We are close to the coast. Their webs are very distinctive I will have to take some pictures of my wild ones' webs outside to show you what to look for just in case. Such pretty babies.