Mystery Spider .... any serious guesses?

[phormingochilus]

Ouch! and touché. It is a real torment to live so far away from your favorite subject. I truly envy those who can jump into their car and get down to T watching within the hour(s).

Søren

Oh, I know I've known you long enough!! You know there's nothing I enjoy more then a verbal bout with a crazy Danish arachnologist (got to be crazy to live so far away from real spiders )!

 

[Steve Nunn]

I truly envy those who can jump into their car and get down to T watching within the hour(s).

Oh, I can go one better then that Closest tarantula I ever collected came from the front garden, lol. To top it off, she had over 200 young still in the burrow. 2 different theraphosid genera within 5 minutes walk, not counting actinopodids, nemesiids, diplurids and an occasional barychelid or 2 I didn't want to mention the giant scolopendrids and 3 families of scorpion either, but the tropics make a nice backyard

Don't mean to rub it in ;P

 

[phormingochilus]

But you did - didn't you? ;-)

Søren

Oh, I can go one better then that Closest tarantula I ever collected came from the front garden, lol. To top it off, she had over 200 young still in the burrow. 2 different theraphosid genera within 5 minutes walk, not counting actinopodids, nemesiids, diplurids and an occasional barychelid or 2 I didn't want to mention the giant scolopendrids and 3 families of scorpion either, but the tropics make a nice backyard

Don't mean to rub it in ;P

 

[stovepipesteve]

thai tiger

 

[Steve Nunn]

But you did - didn't you? ;-)

Oh, I don't know, ok, ok, I do, I did

 

[phormingochilus]

Don't think so. First of all because of the presence of numerous spines on the anterior legs. Members of the subfamily Ornithoctoninae are not really that spinose, they have on average 2-3 spines on the anterior legs with a few exceptions. Also you would be able to see scopulated chelicerae laterally.

Regards
Søren

thai tiger

 

[Steve Nunn]

First of all because of the presence of numerous spines on the anterior legs.

Yes, agree totally, the anterior spination is rare in the Theraphosidae. Spination is such a crappy character because of variation, but, presence of spines are another thing entirely. As I said earlier to Søren about the lack/presence of urticating setae being hard to determine, leaving the gap very large, as my old sparring buddy has pointed out, it is quite true that spination like that is almost exclusively seen on NW tarantulas.

So, would it be NW Ischnocolinae, or Theraphosinae?? Unfortunately the monophyly of the Theraphosinae is readliy determined by male palpal bulb morphology, and the Ishcnocolinae are what is known as a paraphyletic group, with no defining characters to determine monophyly.

The general support of the subfamily Ischnocolinae is based around the lack of tarsal scopula, possibly divided by setae, even on the anterior legs. Do the anterior tarsal scopula seem undivided?? A strange spiky set of thorns called a "serula" is also present on many ischnocolids, but getting you to locate that is too difficult me thinks

Did you look for that scopula patch on the inside of the back femura (found in some, but not all, Theraphosinae)??

Cheers,
Steve

 

[ChrisNCT]

Here are more pics ...

Here are some more pics..hope this helps! I can't wait till it molts!

 

[phormingochilus]

With that pale dorsal setation, the orange spinnerets and the leg striping I am tempted to guestimate Aphonopelma seemanni.

regards
Søren

 

[BakuBak]

Aphonopelma seemanni.

regards
Søren

I love to read those Id threads