I'll be keeping this account up in her honour and to show future spiders I'll take care of. I'll never forget her and the impact she's had on my life 💖🕷️

I feel honoured I was able to take care of her for over a year. She had 5 fertile egg sacs during the time I had her. She taught me so much about spiders - it's because of her that I developed a deep love for them - and I'm grateful that I was able to see her off. Farewell, my beloved Matron.

She also says that she's done sitting on her eggs (5th clutch) because her babies have finally emerged.

They're in temporary containers for now. The juvenile Parson spider will need another meal in the morning and a bit more water since its bum is still rather small, but it's getting there! The crickets it will eat are very small (1/8"), so there's no risk of overfeeding with another.

I don't like to acquire spiders from the wild - live and let live & let nature take its course. These spiders were acquired from the hallway next to my door, which is unfortunately a death zone for many larger species spiders that find themselves there. They get vacuumed up by maintenance regularly.

She deserved a good chance at life and I did my best to provide that, rather than an unfortunate end via maintenance's vacuum. She got to safely let me know how much she wanted to end me, and in return she got food and water and love. I will miss her greatly 💔

(She's alive in this picture - can't bring myself to photograph her tiny curled body)

No matter the type or size of creature, the love one can old for them is limitless. I mourn her like one would mourn a cat or dog. She meant a lot to me, and I loved her with my whole heart. I will bury her soon.

I heard about how feisty OBTs are! Sunflower is doing her best impression of them

After Sunflower's first cricket, she would not let me put water in and was very aggressive. When I saw Matron was uninterested in her cricket (Matron still looks healthy - her bum was a fine size), I gave Sunflower the cricket, and then Sunflower let me put water in.

I'm planning on moving Sunflower to a different enclosure so she has more leg room, as I want her to be cozy and occupied with things other than pondering eviscerating me.

Yeah they're apparently highly nutritious, and I read that they're generally not good to use as a sole food source because of how fattening they are. That, plus the protein of crickets and whatever is in fruitwalks, seem to be a perfect recipe for egg making.

I adore her speckled bum. Her markings on her backside are lovely