An egg sac represents months of potential. A female that has successfully mated and is guarding a sac needs specific conditions — and specific restraint from you.
🧵 Egg Sac Construction
Gravid females typically construct their egg sac 2–4 weeks after a successful mating, though this can extend to 8 weeks in some cases. The sac is built from dense silk in a multi-layered structure — an outer protective layer, an inner egg-cushioning layer, and the eggs themselves in a central mass.
The female will seal herself into her hammock during this period and should not be disturbed. This is the most important period of non-intervention in the entire breeding process.
Continue offering food to the gravid female even while she’s sealed in. She will emerge to feed briefly. Egg production is energetically expensive; a malnourished female may produce fewer eggs or abandon the sac.
🌡️ Temperature and Incubation
Maintain the enclosure at 78–82°F (25–28°C) during incubation. Lower temperatures slow development significantly and can increase mortality. Do not allow the sac to get wet — condensation on the enclosure walls is acceptable, but direct moisture on the sac is not.
🥳 Hatching and Emergence
After 3–6 weeks of incubation, the eggs hatch into first-instar spiderlings (pre-molt larvae that don’t yet feed). These will not need food until after their second molt, which typically occurs within 1–2 weeks of hatching. They will remain with the female for this period.
After the second molt, separate the spiderlings. They will begin to prey on each other once they become mobile hunters.
Egg sac sizes vary widely: P. regius sacs typically contain 40–200 eggs. Not all will hatch; not all spiderlings will survive the first few weeks. A successful yield of 50–80% of hatched spiderlings to second instar is excellent.