Platycryptus undatus Photography by Kozmic Dreams

My Photography of

"Radinka Onawa", the Platycryptus undatus

and Friends of Her Kind

"Radinka Onawa"

July 30, 2008 - July 25, 2009

Note: Unlike most of my other pages, this one proceeds with older photos at the top. Newest photos are at the bottom.

July 30, 2008

This female spider was found on the window screen on July 30, 2008 and photographed the same day. It's been over two years since I've found one of the species, Platycryptus undatus.

This time, I got much better photos than I obtained of the last Platycryptus undatus. I also made a couple of animations, including the one at the top of this page. I decided to keep her and named her Radinka Onawa. Radinka is Slavic for "active one" and Onawa means "wide awake" in Native American. I thought those were both quite suiting to her personality.

December 13, 2008

Radinka has shed her skin a couple times since her last photo shoot and is somewhat larger. Here she is on a Christmas cactus flower, photographed on December 13, 2008. I was even lucky enough to get several shots of her underbelly as she spun around on a silken thread.

March 14, 2009

Here she is photographed on my orchid. She hadn't eaten for several months and I thought she might be on her way out, but then I found a live fly (we had a few warm days and it must have come out) and put it in her cage. About an hour later, she had captured it. I guess she has such a strong preference for flies over crickets that she will starve for months waiting for a fly.

July 20, 2009

Sadly, these were the last photographs of Radinka. I had just found her a new male the day before and I was doing this photo shoot so that they could be placed together right away, as I knew she was old (almost a year since I first captured her).

"Renny" the Platycryptus undatus (male)

June 1, 2009

Sadly, this spider was going to be mated with Radinka, but he died just before I was going to put them together. It had taken me nearly a year to find her a mate of her species and I just fattened her up on wingless fruit flies, which seem to be her favorite snack. I was feeding him too and he seemed to be doing fine, but I found him dead unexpectedly. I was going to introduce them in just a few days from then. I just wanted to take all precautions possible so that Radinka wouldn't eat him, but now it's too late. I just hope I can find her another guy before she dies. She's almost a year old now (maybe more, depending on how old she was when I found her). One can tell this one was a male because of the orange markings underneath his eyes. Females do not have this coloration.

"Rufus" the Platycryptus undatus (male)

July 20, 2009 -

I found this guy at my parents' house on their garage door. His photo shoot below took place on July 20, 2009. He was also to be mated with Radinka and was even placed in her cage and lived with her for 5 days until her death. Apparently, she was just too old to be mated. I hope now that I can find another female for him. I really wanted to breed this kind of spider.

August 31, 2009

Rufus shed his skin a few days ago and got a full orange "moustache"!!! Here he is photographed on a hoya plant on August 31, 2009.

February 6, 2010

Here is Rufus on a mum.

"Rhys" the Platycryptus undatus (male)

September 5, 2009 -

This awesome male was found up near the gutters and I had to get him down with a net. I couldn't even believe it was a Platycryptus because it was so large. I figured it was a wolf spider or something because he was so large. ---it was so high up that I couldn't get a good look at it. It turns out he is a very friendly male. He is lots of fun to play with and isn't as timid as most Platycryptuses (or is it Platycrypti) that I have dealt with. Usually, they are very skittish and hide all the time. This guy just crawls all over my hand, jumping around, looking at me. When I play with most spiders of the Phidippus audax species, if they land on the floor, it is extremely difficult to get them back into your hand. They really don't like the feel of human skin and instinctively seem to avoid it. This guy doesn't seem bothered at all. I am not sure if that is common with others of his species because like I said, they are usually skittish, so I have never really handled them much. I photographed him the day he was caught on my orchid.

October 24, 2009

Here are photos of Rhys on , playing hide-and-seek in some fall gourds and Indian corn.

November 17, 2009

Here are photos of Rhys on a lily.

February 6, 2010

Here is Rhys on a mum.

"Renita" the Platycryptus undatus (female)

September 13, 2009 -

I found this female soon after finding the male above. I was going to breed them, but I am afraid for what will happen to the babies if they hatch in the wintertime. I couldn't possibly care for all of them. So I am going to try to keep them throughout the winter and breed them in early spring. She was photographed below on September 13, 2009.