Content Wanting for Spider pics past the Read More
(It's a jumping spider, it's cute)
but look I understand not everyone can do spiders it's okay
I've entered my 11th Weird Girl phase, this time collecting and keeping random bugs. For awhile it was catch-and-releasing spiders. I'd catch a spider, find out what it was, then release them a day or so later... But I always wanted to find a jumping spider, reading that they make surprisingly good, fun pets...
The spider I found before him was not a good fun spider. It was a cantankerous Broad Faced Sac Spider, which sounds like some weird old-timey insult. This dude was so grumpy, that when I let him go, he immediately found a spider web... and... Sac Spiders aren't web spiders, so he had no confusion of what he found ... well he charged up the fucking thing, tackled the spider, then got his ass kicked and killed. Literally died within 30 seconds of me letting him go and he wasn't even NEAR anything. Literally just did a speed run of fucking around and finding out.
Immediately that night, a family member was complaining about a 'scary black spider'. I've seen these before. Little long creepy dudes who walk around with their long front legs out like weird creepy claws. Now most spiders are homies to some extent. I got a strict no-kill policy for spiders, but some are a little less friendly looking than others.
Not Flatwell, but the same species, appearing as an Ambiguous Homie
So I catch, it, try and ID it and am like "Is this a baby wolf spider? Wolf Spiders are cool, hm, let me get a better look at it's face..."
Wait a minute...
WAAAAIT A MINUTE
THAAATS A JUMPIE~ Turns out all those weird creepy black spiders are actually bark colored little homies.
So it turns out that there are a number of Jumping Spiders who are very much cute, lovable, curious jumping spiders, but don't have that same round like a friend look. This species is Platycryptus Undatus, a very very common kind of jumping spider, but lacking the same cute shape as Bolds or Regals. They're relatively flat, making it harder to notice their big dumb goofy faces. In fact, that Platycryptus means... Hidden Flat. They hide in tree bark. The Undatus refers to the bark like coloring and pattern. They're arboreal spiders that hide in tree bark or... the crown. molding of homes, where I found him
So I named him after a AC6 character I have no strong feelings about because it was the first name I could think of that had Flat in the name.
Flatwell is a big dumb idiot. He's a boy, which you can tell from the orange under his eyes, which I've seen called a moustache. He's scared of everything. I tried to feed him isopods, but he was scared of them. Now I also have pet isopods I guess. (I think I have both Armadillidium Vulgare and Armadillidium Nasatum but it's so hard to tell)
It looks like he's stalking food but he's hiding, moments later the Isopod literally just walked over him
He's also kinda an idiot. He's energetic but seemingly less coordinated than most. He can be handled, but I worry about stressing him out too much. Here, have a picture (or video) of him trying to do a mating dance to his own reflection
(also a great video of him jumping like an idiot)
Anyways he's eating, I made him a nice little bark hide up in the corner, he runs around and climbs plants and gets chased by my isopods (apparently jumpies and Isopods are commonish tank mates) and I'm trying to keep a live terrarium so this is becoming kinda fun.
