I FINALLY GOT MY HANDS ON THIS SPIDER!

Merch and Stuff:

Complete Tarantula guide video:

2nd channel:

Intro and outro song:

00647
Nephila fenestrata

[shaunacorrigan]

I love watching orb weavers make their webs! Those strands in front of and behind her spiral web are guard strands that seem to be unique to Nephila! She'll add prey carcasses and other random bits to those strands, which are thought to help protect her and her main web from birds, other predators, and maybe windblown leaves and stuff. I'm super excited to see how this enclosure develops, especially with all the wild spiders in there, too!!

[lukef]

"Why are the spiders always hiding in the darkness!?" ponders the owner of The DARK Den.
Lol

[WintonNight]

Time lapse sequence ‘3D printing of web haha’… so funny petko that is what it’s called from now on. Can’t wait to see that new slow motion camera 👊🏻

[Raziel]

just the casually petko:


"It looks like a black widow" ... *poke * *poke *

[daviddoubrava]

The wife and I miss one of your sayings. You used to say "What are you doing? What is your plan?". We love that!

[Shooshoobella]

Nephila after eating her roach, "Mmm, good dinner, but I wish there was a little bit more." Spots the leg from the other roach, "Oooh, drumstick!"

[PINKluvr]

So fascinating how she clears out the web from the former argiope spider to make her own

[MerynMTG]

I love that enclosure. An absolute insect paradise.

[jb]

So, so interesting, seeing her working on her web, eating, love that! Andthe resolution of your videos is crystal clear!

Thanks so much! High point of Mondays is getting this notification!

[jumo]

yayyy congrats on finally winning the long journey of getting a true nephila for that beautiful inclosure Petko :P

[HSOpyro]

Omg i love nephilias! This is the spider that stopped me from fearing them. When i was a kid i was invited to enter inside a giant terrarium to see it upclose, it was gorgeous to look at! Of course the step was a difficult leap of faith to do, but i never feared spiders ever since. It's a really great memory to me ^^

[callmefeckers]

I just wanted to post this. When I started watching you I was absolutely scared to death but after some time I got over it and bought my first tarantula Cindy. A time later I bought my second one shorty. Almost 2 months ago he closed himself off completely and he had his molt.. but unfortunately i found out today that he didn't make it. I've had him for 4 months now and I am very upset and unsure what I did wrong. Shorty was a champ, he ate amazing and always was very active. He was a young male. I thank you for taking me into this beautiful world of tarantulas ♥️

[Mellie_H]

When you were zoomed in on her, I noticed that on her back legs, the hairs look like feathers. Very nice! Thanks Petko! Hope all is well with you and your family. 💛

[honoyetameow]

It's so cool seeing someone so hyped about a spider that I get to see everywhere all the time and it's awesome cousins the golden orb.

[AkM]

So, from my own experience, orb weavers do the unregular webs when there is not enough place or - and I am not sure - when they are expecting to make an egg sack.
Other than that, rest of the spiders are: Tegenaria silvestris - funnel like web, two unknown Theridiidae.

[rica]

Woooow man!!!
Such a NICE content! That time-lapse of her eating the roach was AMAZING!
Thanks for your work Petko! ^^

[jessiepearson]

I have about 14 of these female Nephila in my back garden ^^ (Im from South Africa btw) and I have watched the generations of them grow for about 5 years now ^^ the males tend to hang around in the females web until she is ready to breed. Then they all try their luck until they get eaten one by one XD poor little buggers. She then lays one or two beautiful golden egg sacks and so it goes on. The great circle of life <3

[LWIS]

Bro these videos are great the slow mo and the music and the style of the video I haven’t watched your videos in a couple months but it look even better now

[emilyb]

I actually did a mini experiment in grad school where I removed the "auxiliary webs" from in front of and behind wild Nephila spider webs to see if they do (as has been suggested) protect the web from damage. My data was really limited (we only had a few days in the rainforest and then there were a few other confounding factors.) but preliminarily did support my hypothesis. There were other theories about what the "auxiliary webs" are for, too, that I don't remember off the top of my head. But they totally fascinated me!

[Kirbyroth]

So funny she went and scavenge the leg after the main course of roach shake