TheTyro's Picture Thread!

[TheTyro]

This is my first tarantula - A juvenile Poecilotheria pederseni! In terms of behavior and speed, it reminds me of the sizable true spider that I had a year ago, Dolomedes okefinokensis. I miss her.

Size - 1.5 inches from chelicerae to spinnerets - a bit under 3 inches with legs.

On the outside of her temporary (but new) enclosure. I love the sound her/his feet makes when it gallops across the plastic.

 

[crawltech]

Noice lil pederseni...my female is easily the fastest of all my poecis hands down!

you gots any ventral shot of the lil devil?.....look like a boy from the dorsal side of things, and at that size you might find out next molt, when he comes out packin gunz!

 

[TheTyro]

Here is a ventral shot of the abdomen.

And a crappy shot of the ventral side of it's front, fangy end.

 

[crawltech]

ya looks male to me....keep me posted!

 

[Storm76]

Nice to start outright with an OW Poeci.

Just got one single question: When you say you "love the sound her feet make on the plastic galloping" - what's the reason for the running?

 

[jbm150]

Nice pickup and pics, I agree, does look male. Also agree, love the tromping sound they make when they run around lol

 

[Shell]

Nice spider, and pics

My MF Hapalopus sp. "Colombia/large" is one of my worst for bolting, and I too think the sound of her feet on the plastic is pretty cool.

 

[TheTyro]

Crawltec - Thanks for looking! I was kind of hoping it would turn out to be a female :cry: - but I have no bloomin' idea what to look for when it comes to T's. It's easy for me to identify juvenile/sub adult males or females with True spiders. Still, a cute little bugger who I love all the same! Now I can settle on a name for him!

Time to search for a T sexing thread...see if I can catch up on how it's eyeballed.

Storm76 - the galloping occurred when I was in the midst of transferring the animal from his old container into the new one, and also while I was making attempts to photograph him as he crawled around/inside the new cage. He was on my bed and every so often I'd bump into the bed, jiggling the enclosure, startling him. That or I'd physically encourage him to move in a particular direction, to keep him from running loose elsewhere.

Part of it was me wanting to get a sense of it's behavior range, like what it'd do in response to particular stimulus (brushing against his abdomen, touching the legs, carapace etc) so I could better manage him in the future, much as I did with my pet Dolomedes okefinokensis or the wild Cupiennius bimaculatus in Ecuador. I used a long, soft bristled paintbrush.

jbm150 - Glad you enjoyed the photos! I'll try and get better ones soon.

Shell - Yeah, that 'tromping' is definitely enhanced by the relatively soft (compared to glass) nature of the plastic container! I guess the best way to describe it is simply "drumming" haha!

 

[Storm76]

Storm76 - the galloping occurred when I was in the midst of transferring the animal from his old container into the new one, and also while I was making attempts to photograph him as he crawled around/inside the new cage. He was on my bed and every so often I'd bump into the bed, jiggling the enclosure, startling him. That or I'd physically encourage him to move in a particular direction, to keep him from running loose elsewhere.

I don't have personal experience with pokies so far, but I'd be careful with ongoing prodding and the like. The older they get, the more self-confident they will get, too. I know, a lot of people keeping them say they are very mellow, but you could always have a suddenly quite defensive specimen. Just be careful, please.

 

[TheTyro]

Storm76 - I certainly will! I think of just about all spiders as a "loaded gun"...all fully capable of biting. I just didn't want to be afraid (surprised, really.) of something that i'd have to manipulate eventually, especially knowing that it has strong venom. The way I'm looking at this guy is that he's a gun with pressure on the trigger. I'm sure one day he's going to demonstrate defensive behavior and was surprised when he didn't, after reading about Pokies in general. I'll always assume he should and respect that!

The good thing is that it's a beautiful animal, worthy of display - and that there are more docile and equally interesting species of tarantula (and true spiders) that I can handle with confidence and without potentially dangerous consequences. So he will remain, most of his life...a gun I am not eager to see "fired".