Livestock Spiders

In salticid society, livestock spiders are the descendants of vast weavers which have been cultivated for food.

Description
Livestock spiders are physiologically identical to their vast weaver ancestors with a few exceptions. They have been selectively bred to be less aggressive, larger, plumper, and tastier, with more bloated and fattier innards. Weaver domestication has occurred on all continents and the term "livestock spider" is polyphyletic, describing many different similarly modified species.

Husbandry
Salticids farm livestock spiders by placing them in a wooden frame as spiderlings and closing it off with twigs, grass, and silk until the spider makes its web. Some livestock spiders are cultivated in the open air while others are strictly confined with more than one frame to create a cage. Livestock spiders are primarily fed wingtails, which are also often cultivated in similar cages but may be caught wild by salticid gatherers.

Once a livestock spider is fully grown and plump, it is removed from the frame, wrapped up in web, and distributed live to salticid family groups for feeding.

In Portia, farming of livestock spiders is a local industry and generally not outsourced due to the difficulty of transporting heavy prey across the continent.