First distribution record of a tarantula spider found in the United Arab Emirates

[Poec54]

The US has its own share of highly knowledgeable breeders, Chris Allen comes to in mind to me immediately, among others. Chris focuses on Selenocosmiinae (among others), those really were the realm of the European breeders, for a while, but Chris, well, he took the time to talk with and listen to what the European guys were saying (and I got my share of emails EDIT: Add Philth to that list above!!

Chris and Tom are great examples of American breeders. They're working with some incredible species; I've gotten slings from both of them. Rather than crank out common stuff like most people, they're pushing the boundaries and giving the Europeans some competition.

 

[awiec]

Chris and Tom are great examples of American breeders. They're working with some incredible species; I've gotten slings from both of them. Rather than crank out common stuff like most people, they're pushing the boundaries and giving the Europeans some competition.

I cannot currently get into the oddball stuff as I'm a low income college student BUT if all goes well one of my suspect males will get to go to someone who needs him in exchange for slings that will hopefully grow up to be one of my female's future mates. I'm pretty giddy, I haven't been this excited since I used to breed and trade/sell wild spiders for fun things. I really hope that the US might catch up at some point, it's ridiculous that the Europeans are better at breeding our own hemisphere's species than we are.

 

[Sana]

I'm hoping to get some lessons from some European breeders before I start breeding. I'm super curious what temp. humidity, sub, enclosure type, etc. that those members find optimal for their species.

 

[Steve Nunn]

Well, if I were you, I'd probably start by hunting out some of Martin Huber's early writings, amazing work on breeding some of the most difficult species in the world. You can search for many of his older posts, but it's in his articles in the journals he's written some great stuff hey....and he's not the only one, guys like Heinrich, geez, there's heaps of them, Søren Rafn wrote some great stuff on keeping....these guys have a LOT of stuff online you can research, it's good info...and it is out there.....

 

[viper69]

Thanks Steve.

I sat on this info for MONTHS!

I've alluded to this discovery months ago in various posts here and there, but have not wanted to spill the beans! I knew the paper was going to be out this year likely based on my conversation with Rick.

I found a picture of this species quite by random a while ago on some Middle East site, I believe when I was looking up Socotra. I came across the original photos uploaded to the net of this new species by accident. I contacted the photographer immediately; she told me that tons of people had bombarded her email about the blue T and she wasn't sure why, to which I then explained to her why (that was the impression I had at least). The photographer was not aware of the popularity of Ts and/or blue Ts when she took the photographs based on a response I read from her.

I saw the original photographs she took. She wouldn't reveal the exact location of the T either. I also learned from someone that this species is very common in its native area according to a native of the region. He said "they are all over the fence posts" during a certain part of the year, going back at least 15 years maybe even more (I don't know the age of the native person). So this species has quietly remained undetected by the rest of the world, but is well known among the locals.

At some point I went back to the Middle Eastern site, and the photos of the Ts were removed. I didn't check back so I don't know if she removed them, or if it was a site issue.

I contacted Rick back in May and he told me they were going to ID it! Glad to see the news is finally out.

A common name could be the the Blue UAE or UAE Blue haha

 

[Steve Nunn]

Yes, this was a tough one to sit on for so long, but we had to get that first paper out there from Priscilla, who will undoubtedly be the lady who you talked with. Some of the locals have known about them, but they miss-identify them with other spiders common to the region, like some of the huntsmen there...at least that is what we've found so far....a LOT of work to go with this new one!!

 

[viper69]

Yes, this was a tough one to sit on for so long, but we had to get that first paper out there from Priscilla, who will undoubtedly be the lady who you talked with. Some of the locals have known about them, but they miss-identify them with other spiders common to the region, like some of the huntsmen there...at least that is what we've found so far....a LOT of work to go with this new one!!

Yep, I'm almost positive she's the person I communicated with. I don't know if the point in time I contacted her she had already reached out to the scientific arach community or not. Like I said, it was really a big fluke that I chanced upon her photographs as they were not on an animal site etc. I wanted to tell the AB board here, but Rick didn't have his hands on the T yet. Plus, I wanted the original discovers and scientists to release the news on this one, esp a new BLUE T, my favorite color, and the rarest color in nature too.

 

[Steve Nunn]

Yes, we have known about this for some time now, but Tribulus only publish once a year, and we still had a LOT of work to do. I have that material in front of me right now We have to compare this material against what Jose Guadanucci has seen, but things look good for a new species at this point

 

[Priscilla vA]

Yep, I'm almost positive she's the person I communicated with. I don't know if the point in time I contacted her she had already reached out to the scientific arach community or not. Like I said, it was really a big fluke that I chanced upon her photographs as they were not on an animal site etc. I wanted to tell the AB board here, but Rick didn't have his hands on the T yet. Plus, I wanted the original discovers and scientists to release the news on this one, esp a new BLUE T, my favorite color, and the rarest color in nature too.

Hello, good day to you!
Yes I remember your email I couldnt reply to your 2nd mail as I 'lost it', perhaps accidentally deleted it.
Well, yes I received tons of replies to my postings of the 'unknown spider' and my worry was 'tons' of people started searching for them.
I am not a scientist, I am a photographer yes, but I love wildlife a lot as well, so wouldnt want people start 'jumping' up collecting them, therefor I refused giving locations to anyone at all. Sorry!
I was also advised to keep photos of the net until positive ID etc...
And yes as you currently found the entire story here on the board you may understand why I laid low in communicating until this would go published.
I am currently trying to upload as many photos I have into Flickr, but something wrong with the Flickr website https://www.flickr.com/photos/priscillava
Perhaps if you check in 1 or 2 days I may have uploaded some photos of these beauties.

Funny how I came across your message to Steve

Best regards, Priscilla

---------- Post added 01-15-2015 at 11:51 AM ----------

---------- Post added 01-15-2015 at 11:52 AM ----------

Hi guys,
Here's a new paper by Priscilla van Andel on the "First distribution record of a tarantula (Araneae, Theraphosidae) spider found in the United Arab Emirates", published in Tribulus Vol.22 (Journal of The Emirates Natural History Group). It appears this is a new species from the ischnocoline genus Ischnocolus, to which Rick West, Jose Guadanucci and myself will be describing (in prep, I'm honoured to be working alongside Jose, as is Rick). We have material and are working on them alongside Rick's and my other work on Selenocosmiinae (and Volker too, David Court also, the selenocosmiine stuff...). Here's the article (pretty species): http://www.mediafire.com/view/bzx3uasr51yx7y7/Van_Andel_2014_Trib_22.pdf and further, the entire issue will soon be available here: http://www.enhg.org/Home/Publications/Tribulus.aspx....WELL DONE PRISCILLA!!!!

Image by Rick West:


Enjoy!
Steve

Thank you and Rick SO much for the enthusiasm, support, patience, being my teachers, it was/is great working with the both of you on this.
You both are the best!

I replied twice to this thread but it keeps being deleted/not uploaded???

 

[advan]

I replied twice to this thread but it keeps being deleted/not uploaded???

It seems to not be going through, nothing has been deleted. Can you try again?

 

[eldondominicano]

We have a lot to learn when it comes to tarantulas. Almost every species in this country came over as CBB slings from Europe.

This is unfortunate..

 

[viper69]

Hello, good day to you!
Yes I remember your email I couldnt reply to your 2nd mail as I 'lost it', perhaps accidentally deleted it.
Well, yes I received tons of replies to my postings of the 'unknown spider' and my worry was 'tons' of people started searching for them.
I am not a scientist, I am a photographer yes, but I love wildlife a lot as well, so wouldnt want people start 'jumping' up collecting them, therefor I refused giving locations to anyone at all. Sorry!
I was also advised to keep photos of the net until positive ID etc...
And yes as you currently found the entire story here on the board you may understand why I laid low in communicating until this would go published.
I am currently trying to upload as many photos I have into Flickr, but something wrong with the Flickr website https://www.flickr.com/photos/priscillava
Perhaps if you check in 1 or 2 days I may have uploaded some photos of these beauties.

Funny how I came across your message to Steve

Best regards, Priscilla

---------- Post added 01-15-2015 at 11:51 AM ----------

---------- Post added 01-15-2015 at 11:52 AM ----------




Thank you and Rick SO much for the enthusiasm, support, patience, being my teachers, it was/is great working with the both of you on this.
You both are the best!

Hi Priscilla, so nice to hear you and glad you remembered my email! SO nice to see the pictures of this T in it's natural habitat. We don't get nearly as many photos of these animals as I would like. Thanks for posting these on flickr

 

[Priscilla vA]

Hi Priscilla, so nice to hear you and glad you remembered my email! SO nice to see the pictures of this T in it's natural habitat. We don't get nearly as many photos of these animals as I would like. Thanks for posting these on flickr

Hi, sorry I always forget to check the posts here...
Yes I prefer to see any animal in natural habitat, that's also how I keep them at home. My, as Im not an expert such as all of you here, instinct says they will feel best in my home in a natural habitat. That also results in not seeing them all the time and real good photos are therefor often difficult to take.
BUt will try to post more on Flickr asap, whether the photos are Awhhh or not I post as many as possible.

 

[viper69]

Hi, sorry I always forget to check the posts here...
Yes I prefer to see any animal in natural habitat, that's also how I keep them at home. My, as Im not an expert such as all of you here, instinct says they will feel best in my home in a natural habitat. That also results in not seeing them all the time and real good photos are therefor often difficult to take.
BUt will try to post more on Flickr asap, whether the photos are Awhhh or not I post as many as possible.

Priscilla, you can always set your profile settings to give you automatic email alerts in someone responds to a thread, then you don't have to remember to check

 

[matmohair1]

Hi, thanks Priscilla, I really admire you work.

found another photo taken in neighboring Oman on birdspiders.com
- http://www.birdspiders.com/gallery/index.php/Tarantulas/Chaetopelma-Ischnocolus-sp-female-Oman

I'm not an expert, but I've been wondering if these tarantulas could perhaps be Monocentropus longimanus?
(Arabian sooty mouse baboon)? color variation or subspecies ?

but then again, it does look very similar to Ischnocolus valentinus here
- http://www.birdspiders.com/gallery/index.php/Tarantulas/Ischnocolus-sp-female-Tunisia-North-Africa

I'm really excited about the identification of this species, blue is my favorite color too
I always admired cobalt blue tarantulas and I never expected
the discovery of a blueish species locally!

 

[viper69]

You should ask Rick West as that's his site and he likely took those pics hah

 

[matmohair1]

more pictures by Rick West

female - http://www.birdspiders.com/gallery/index.php/Tarantulas/birdspiders_0330

female closeup - http://www.birdspiders.com/gallery/index.php/Tarantulas/Ischnocolus-sp-female-e-Sultanate-of-Oman

male - http://www.birdspiders.com/gallery/index.php/Tarantulas/Chaetopelma-Ischnocolus-sp-1-male-Oman

 

[viper69]

First distribution record of a tarantula spider found in the United Arab Emir...

Having personally communicated with Rick West last year he told me the species Priscilla photographed is a new species and so I doubt any of the pics previously on his site are the same as Priscilla's find

 

[TheDarkness]

Hi guys,
Here's a new paper by Priscilla van Andel on the "First distribution record of a tarantula (Araneae, Theraphosidae) spider found in the United Arab Emirates", published in Tribulus Vol.22 (Journal of The Emirates Natural History Group). It appears this is a new species from the ischnocoline genus Ischnocolus, to which Rick West, Jose Guadanucci and myself will be describing (in prep, I'm honoured to be working alongside Jose, as is Rick). We have material and are working on them alongside Rick's and my other work on Selenocosmiinae (and Volker too, David Court also, the selenocosmiine stuff...). Here's the article (pretty species): http://www.mediafire.com/view/bzx3uasr51yx7y7/Van_Andel_2014_Trib_22.pdf and further, the entire issue will soon be available here: http://www.enhg.org/Home/Publications/Tribulus.aspx....WELL DONE PRISCILLA!!!!

Image by Rick West:


Enjoy!
Steve

This paper was published?

Thanks

 

[viper69]

This paper was published?

Thanks

Yes