All black Avicularia I.D. Question

Dogfish

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Hello Everyone,

I am new to the boards and to Tarantulas. I Live Quite Literally Next Door to an exotic pet shop with a decent selection of adult tarantulas and slings. I've been in and out of the shop for a month or so, keeping my eye out for a T that would be easy for me to start with. Earlier this week, a couple of tiny Avicularia slings arrived in, and I decided to purchase one. The sling is doing great so far, and I believe it is quite healthy as it has eaten four pinhead crickets in as many days.

My question is regarding the specific species of this particular Avic. The Spiderling is all black, perhaps a little grey though that may just be some lighter hairs. There is almost no coloration except for perhaps a little red around the mouth area. I saw what I believe was an adult of this same species and it was entirely black, without any sort of pink toes, though it did have some very nice red-hued hairs all over the body and legs.

Now I have heard that the Avicularia genus is rather messy, so I assume this may just be some sort of hybrid or color variation on Avicularia Avicularia. I am curious, though, as to whether anyone else has encountered this.

I am really enjoying the Boards! This is a very cool community and I thank anyone who has taken the time to read this.
 

Dogfish

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I will try and post a picture tomorrow, when I re-house it. It really is just as described, though... all black. I had seen pictures of avicularia avicularia slings that were all pink, with black toes and assumed that they would all look like that.
 

Dogfish

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spider1.jpg



Here is a picture, though it is not very good. Unfortunately my Ipod is my camera and the lighting is currently bad. I'll have to get better ones when the sun is up.

As you can somewhat see, the coloration is just black. There is just a little bit of orange or red underneath, around the mouth.
 

BrettG

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I'd bet a dollar that it is just an A.avic DEEP into premolt.They turn pretty much black.Do the legs appear to have darker black "lines" running down them?
 

Dogfish

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not that I can see with my naked eye, but it is still very tiny and the legs are miniscule.

---------- Post added 09-30-2011 at 09:28 PM ----------

I'll take a closer look at it tomorrow, it's getting antsy... and this little T can move!
 

Petross

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I thinking that is a Avicularia purpurea slings, A. Avic has orange legs even into premolt. Mostly avicularia are metal blue or orange with pattern on abdomen,only black-grey i know is A.purpurea.
But it also can be some hybrid.
SL386907.jpg
Avicularia pururea
SL386531.jpg
Avicularia aurantiaca
View attachment 94035
Avicularia diversipes
View attachment 94036
Avicularia metallica
View attachment 94037
Avicularia versicolor
 

Dogfish

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I am looking at it now, under direct sunlight. I can definitely see a faint pattern and it looks just like the pattern on the A. Purpurea picture that is posted above. I think that may be it! Thank you very much for the input, I'm going to go do some reading on this particular species now. I'd post another pic, but my camera is really not up to catching the pattern against the black body. I'm going to have to put a new HD camera on my christmas wishlist :biggrin:
 
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BrettG

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Petross,all our Avicularia slings legs turn black before a molt.Abdomen swells,and the legs turn mostly black.
 

Dogfish

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It's possible that it is in pre-molt, but the sling is eating pinhead crickets as soon as they are offered and has been eating one a day so far. I drop in two of them every two days and it immediately eats one. It always eats the second one overnight. When it goes into pre-molt it should begin to refuse food, or kill it and leave it, yeah?
 

Petross

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BrettG, I agree they getting muddy,but not so much that you can't recognize the different color of toe and a rest of leg. A.purpurea has whole leg in one colour.
Dogfish,look if your sling has diffent colour of toe and a rest of her leg. And she can eat in the morning and molt in the evening,but after molt don't feed her two days or till cheliceras get black.
 

Dogfish

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I rehoused the sling about two hours ago and got a really good look at it.

The greyish hairs that I could see in artificial light have a definite purple hue to them under direct sunlight, and there is a faint pattern that looks very similar to the previously posted picture of a Purpurea. I do not see any coloration whatsoever at the ends of the legs.

For the new enclosure, I repurposed an empty giardiniera jar, which is nice and tall. I took a silk terarrium plant with a solid flat base and trimmed away almost everything until I was left with a single stalk topped by a few leaves. I then hot-glued the base to the bottom of the jar and allowed it to set overnight.

This morning I added moistened coconut fiber (the exo-terra brand) tamping it down occasionally until the enclosure was about 1/3 full. Then it was time to move the sling.

As expected, this feisty little girl (fingers crossed!) wanted to go every which way but into the jar, so I nudged her in the right direction with a small paint brush. Midway through she deliberately stopped, raised her hindquarters, and fired a shot of spider poop at the brush. Sure showed the big mean brush who is boss lol. Eventually I got her to walk into the jar and closed it up, after about 45 minutes she began actively webbing up the silk plant as i had hoped and is now hard at work on her new web. I will wait until she settles down and then mist the inside of the enclosure so she can replace any hydration lost during the poop-shooting incident.

here are a couple of pics:

photo.JPG

photo (2).jpg

photo (1).JPG
 

Petross

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She has blue shine. Probably it will be A.versicolor,but depends on her size. A.purpurea is all black-grey without blue shine. A.laeta has also blue metal babies but they are rare in US so i will go with A.versicolor.
View attachment 94066
A.laeta change color from juvenile blue to adult brown
 

Dogfish

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Interesting. Does the intensity of the blue increase as they get a bit larger? All the pictures I have seen of Versicolor slings are very unmistakably bright blue.
 

Dogfish

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after looking around some more I found a picture of a Versicolor sling that looks like mine, just much lighter. Perhaps mine is this color variation but in pre-molt as previously suggested. I will have to wait and see. I assume the patterns/colors will be much brighter immediately after a molt?

this is the pic I saw:

<picture removed, please review our copyright infringement rules>


Edit: I should also mention, all that blue coloration only showed up under bright sunlight... indoors you'd never be able to tell that it is there. funky.
 
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Petross

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No,when they grow they change color to red. Only carapax stay blue. But your is now in a 4 instar i guess. How big is she?
 

Petross

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We will be much smarter, when she will after molt. But avicularia are really interesting,because friend of mine have mature male of A.versicolor and he was so dark almost black, it wasn't look like versicolor at all and it wasn't hybrid.

---------- Post added 10-01-2011 at 10:17 PM ----------

And Avicularia on that pic you add looks like A.purpurea to me. I am quite sure you have an A.versicolor. Tomorrow on sunlight I will photo my A.versicolor in six instar,because when A.versicolor grow they are from brightly blue to dark blue to red with blue carapax.
 
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