Genus Phoneutria - Basics about captive care and a brief look into the different species

Stefan2209

Arachnodemon
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Phoneutria boliviensis - Addendum

Addendum: Phoneutria bolivensis

After I finally managed to make my way to the amazon rainforest to take a look at the lifestyle of my most beloved genus for myself, I want to add the following:

Thesis

P. bolivensis seems to be not only geographically much wider distributed than other Phoneutria species, apparently this species is also much wider distributed in specimen density in a given area.

This is, at least to my opinion, not that surprising, as P. boliviensis is a rather medium sized species in comparison to P. fera and P. reidyi, that are said to be found in the same area where I was around.
However, I wasn´t able to locate one single specimen of one of the other two mentioned species.

I don´t take this for too surprising, due to the following facts:

Both species, P. fera and P. reidyi as well, display two of the biggest ctenid species at all, with body sizes around 5cm (2”) and legspans of more than 15cm (6”) in really big specimen. With this sizes, they belong to the top predators in the invertebrate community in their habitats. A certain area can just accommodate a limited amount of such large predators.

Especially the presence of maximum size-potential specimen may be very limited in one area.

While I didn´t find the mentioned Phoneutria species, I found literally masses of an Ancylometes species. The specimen density was surprisingly high in a very limited area. However, really big specimen of that species were rather rare, I found some, but most were rather medium sized, nevertheless, I am quite sure they were adult already, as some of the females carried sacs.
Interestingly, the only other spider species, that could be found within the same area in high density was a rather small hunting spider (Sparassidae? Trechalaeidae?) that had completely different lifestyle habits (arboreal). Through the differences in sizes and lifestyle I came to the impression that nature balances the species and specimen distribution in a given habitat very well.

Observations

To my surprise, observations made in the natural habitat resembled exactly the observations made under captive conditions:

P. boliviensis can quite often be found on ground level, far more often than any other Phoneutria species i´ve seen so far.

Also with “wild” specimen, it could be confirmed that this species is quite relaxed for Phoneutria standards. Wild living specimen could easily be picked up with bare hands, as long as one was gentle with them (not even one single thread display was thrown).

To my opinion there´s at least one major point about this species that needs verification: possible geographic colouration differences. All found specimen looked exactly the same. Given the far distribution of this species i´d take it for very interesting if one would be able to come up with colouration or even marking differences within this species.
This is at least a possibility, though not one that has necessary to be given, as all specimen of Ancylometes bogotensis (this species has, too, a very wide geografic distribution) that i´ve seen so far looked exactly the same.
If the latter should prove to be true, it´d explain why I found some rumours some years back which originated to some scientific papers from south-america and stated that P. boliviensis would be the only Phoneutria species that could be id éd by just it´s appearance.

Take care guys and gals...

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Selenops

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I agree. A wealth of knowledge and information stored in this thread. :D
 

Stefan2209

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Maybe sticky?
Hi,

thanks for the flowers, guys!

Nevertheless, this is not even half-way finished, may be a good idea to wait till it´ll come to an end, don´t you think? ;)

More to come soon, first P. boliviensis sac hatched here just yesterday evening...

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Stefan2209

Arachnodemon
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Hi there,

B O O M:

Phoneutria boliviensis





Phoneutria reidyi





Phoneutria spec. "Paraguay" (poss. P. nigriventer) 4. sac



Greetings,

Stefan
 

C_Strike

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many thanks, thisw thread is damn helpful.
Random arguments for no reason i see, but damn helpful info :worship:
 

CaptainChaos

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Bump bump..

It would be nice to bring this thread to life again as it has been good reading and helpfull thanks to Stefan2209´s great posts.

Here few pics of my female:


 

beetleman

Arachnoking
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very nice! thanks for sharing:clap: ive got a female P.NIGRIVENTER(spelling) amazing spiders,i gotta get me a camera so i can take pics also:wall:
 

Stefan2209

Arachnodemon
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Bump bump..

It would be nice to bring this thread to life
Hi there,

this will be continued.

But not that soon, i´m afraid i have to add, as i´m working on several projects at this time and are on duty travel, too.

Just some patience... ;)

Greetings,

Stefan
 

CaptainChaos

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Hi there,

this will be continued.

But not that soon, i´m afraid i have to add, as i´m working on several projects at this time and are on duty travel, too.

Just some patience... ;)

Greetings,

Stefan
Well that is nice to hear and after you´ve updated this with a few more this could be a sticky :)
 

Stefan2209

Arachnodemon
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Dear friends,

while i will definitely continue this thread, by now i just want to announce the following:

The given species account here is no longer valid, a new genus revision was published exactly one week ago.

See here:

New species of Phoneutria

More infos soon....

Greetings,

Stefan
 

Nich

Curator of glass boxes
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Awesome thread!

Thanks to Stefan and all who have contributed thus far. Giving a much deserved bump.:worship:
 

bluefrogtat2

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great read

i would love to get my hands on even one sling of phounetria.they are gorgeous and thanks for all the info
andy
 

toolrick

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Aug 20, 2008
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Thank you all, no I mean another type of whitish appearance... I'll try to photograph it to show you...
Anyway, I had the same problem with three species (reidyi, nigriventer and sp. Paraguay).
But it's not a "great" problem, only a few losses...
Cheers
Ema
Hey there Emma!!!!

Maybe you are nolonger into the Phoneutria Sp. since this forum has long existed, but I have found a solution for mycosis and fongus while I keep 100% mosture in my terrariums and I do not have to clean the tank for remains. I have many Isopods living in with my Phoneutrias, and they eat the remains and fongus as well. Phoneutrias do not seem to like those animals and they reproduce themself pretty fast, so now I have a lot of them living with my species.
I also have them in my scoprs terrarium, because most of the species I keep are from humid places.

Just wanted to share this with everybody.

Ricardo
 

crpy

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Well I must comment on the thread by OP.
This is the first time Ive read it and I enjoyed it. I always pay close attention to the experiences of people. What ever disagreements posters have with opinions given in the text, does not detract it from being a very informative thread and an invaluable read to anybody even remotely thinking on acquiring this genus.
My .02
 
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