Aphonopelma peloncillo

[advan]

Made a trip down to visit a good friend Michael Jacobi last August in SE AZ. He has been staying in the Cave Creek Canyon, working at the visitor's center and also doing birding/herping tours. My goal was to find and photograph a few new species of Aphonopelma while I was there, along with some new Salticidae and reptiles. He had found a rare female Aphonopelma chiricahua just a few months before, just up the road from his place. Not much was known about the species and it's habitat. We did go back to the same area to try and find more to no avail.

We drove down to the Peloncillo Mountains in New Mexico to find another rare Aphonopelma. This species lives in a oak grassland along the foothills of the mountains.

Habitat

Burrow

Adult female Aphonopelma peloncillo

The only other species I was able to see was Aphonopelma vorhiesi which is a species I already had under my wing from the ATS Conferences in Tuscon. The adult males were out in force while I was there. We found an adult female wondering across a road while we were out night cruising for rattlesnakes. Interesting considering there were no rains for her to be flooded out from. Where was she going?

Adult male Aphonopelma vorhiesi

Adult female

I have many more pics from the trip and I'll probably start a thread in the Field Trip sub-forum so I can include all animals. Thanks for looking! -Chad

If you are interested in Jacobi's blog post about my visit go here:
https://www.mjacobi.com/blog/2018/8/26/98-another-visit

 

[Paul1126]

Would be awesome to see tarantulas in the wild.
Very nice pics.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

We found an adult female wondering across a road while we were out night cruising for rattlesnakes. Interesting considering there were no rains for her to be flooded out from. Where was she going?

I see this all the time too in Texas. Juveniles and females out wandering around with no obvious reason for abandoning the protection of a burrow. I figure they got a raise at work and decided to move to a better neighborhood.

Here is a research article that studied burrow fidelity in an Aphonopelma species in case anyone is interested.

Hamilton, D. E., McIntyre, N. E., & Densmore III, L. D. (2012). Using implanted passive integrated transponders to monitor long-term burrow fidelity in a theraphosid spider, Aphonopelma hollyi. The Southwestern Naturalist, 144-147.

What I have always wondered about the tarantulas in the southwestern states is how and when are they digging burrows in that hard clay/ rocky soil.

Great pictures as always Chad. I can't get enough of seeing the Aphonopelma species that are not plain old brown and tan.