# T. stirmi or T. blondi?



## Ciphor (Sep 6, 2011)

Curious if anyone can tell me if this is T. blondi or T. stirmi. I understand the hair on the patella can determine this but I am not confident in determining this on my own. Also curious if any successful T. blondi breeders can give me some tips on raising a juvenile. Currently have her in a decent sized glass cage with screen top, half covered to improve humidity. I keep her around 75-80% but when she flips to her back I will do what I can to get humidity higher as I heard it helps prevent losing limbs. Also feed her a good mixed diet with a larger prey once a month to try and mimic the natural diet (small lizards snakes, try to avoid mice) Main diet is large crickets, as many as she wants to eat.

I received the spider from the California Zoology department, ordered via petco, so I am hoping this spider is a true T. blondi


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## Josh Craig (Sep 6, 2011)

I think stirmi but not sure.


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## DaveM (Sep 6, 2011)

Here's a good link for you: 
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?204118-The-Theraphosa-Situation-Visual-ID


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## Ciphor (Sep 6, 2011)

Amazing link, thanks DaveM.

Couple questions just to clarify. (i'm fairly confident that it is not a T. apophysis so I will not consider this species) 

This post mentions that juvenile T. stirmi have lighter coloration on the 4 anterior legs tarsus, and T. blondi, have uniform coloration on all 8 legs tarsus.

The post then mentions that adult T. stirmi have no long hairs on the patella of all 8 legs, while T. blondi have long hairs on all 8 legs petalla.

My question is does a juvenile T. stirmi and juvenile T. blondi have the same hair qualities in the patella as thee adults? If so, I think I can conclude I have a genuine T. blondi. I will have to wait till I am home to verify coloration on the 4 anterior tarsus, but I have an image that says all 8 tarsus are uniform in coloration.


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## synyster (Sep 7, 2011)

That is _Theraphosa stirmi_. A nice specimen too! congrats 

One thing you want to do to have success with this species is to always keep humidity as high as possible, not just throughout the molting stage. It is the overall humidity that will help this species go through clean molts and boosting it up in the last 12ish hours will have no effect. Keep it always above 90%. Also, be careful for stagnant air. This species is extremely fragile, and lots of people have lost specimens due to low humidity or stagnant air. Is it WC or CB?


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## Ciphor (Sep 7, 2011)

synyster said:


> That is _Theraphosa stirmi_. A nice specimen too! congrats
> 
> One thing you want to do to have success with this species is to always keep humidity as high as possible, not just throughout the molting stage. It is the overall humidity that will help this species go through clean molts and boosting it up in the last 12ish hours will have no effect. Keep it always above 90%. Also, be careful for stagnant air. This species is extremely fragile, and lots of people have lost specimens due to low humidity or stagnant air. Is it WC or CB?


I'm curious what specific feature in my images, or which image you saw that lead you to your conclusion that she is Theraphosa stirmi. I checked last night and all 8 of the spiders tarsus and metatarsus are an even dark coffee color. She also appears to have quite a bit of long hairs on all of her patellas, which fits the description of T. blondi according to some of the other members here. Personally, having dealt most my life with Araneomorphae, I am never 100% without genitalia inspection/ID. Not doubting what you say, I'd just like to understand better how to ID this genus to a species. Can a juvenile molt give a 100% ID before the spider is sexually mature? I'm hoping for one soon. If it's T. stirmi I will be quite upset as I special ordered from CA zoology department which should be professional on ID's... Never know though.


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## Ciphor (Sep 7, 2011)

synyster said:


> That is _Theraphosa stirmi_. A nice specimen too! congrats
> 
> One thing you want to do to have success with this species is to always keep humidity as high as possible, not just throughout the molting stage. It is the overall humidity that will help this species go through clean molts and boosting it up in the last 12ish hours will have no effect. Keep it always above 90%. Also, be careful for stagnant air. This species is extremely fragile, and lots of people have lost specimens due to low humidity or stagnant air. Is it WC or CB?


I'm curious what specific feature in my images, or which image you saw that lead you to your conclusion that she is Theraphosa stirmi. I checked last night and all 8 of the spiders tarsus and metatarsus are an even dark coffee color. She also appears to have quite a bit of long hairs on all of her patellas, which fits the description of T. blondi according to some of the other members here. Personally, having dealt most my life with Araneomorphae, I am never 100% without genitalia inspection/ID. Not doubting what you say, I'd just like to understand better how to ID this genus to a species. Can a juvenile molt give a 100% ID before the spider is sexually mature? I'm hoping for one soon. If it's T. stirmi I will be quite upset as I special ordered from CA zoology department which should be professional on ID's... Never know though.


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## Chris_Skeleton (Sep 7, 2011)

Ciphor said:


> If it's T. stirmi I will be quite upset as I special ordered from CA zoology department which should be professional on ID's... Never know though.


 Why should they be professional on ID's? Also, you ordered through Petco, are you sure that is where it came from?


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## xhexdx (Sep 7, 2011)

Ciphor said:


> She also appears to have quite a bit of long hairs on all of her patellas, which fits the description of T. blondi according to some of the other members here.


Can you post a picture that clearly illustrates this?


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## Ciphor (Sep 7, 2011)

What is WC or CB? Why can I not delete or edit my posts either? 

Chris_Skeleton: I know the girl there who ordered it and spoke with them over the phone about getting a juvenile instead of adult. But in all honesty I am having doubts after this threads replies and other things I am now hearing.

xhexdx: I doubt I can, I use a poor 2.5mp phone camera on my nexus one. In reviewing my images she does appear to have a lighter coloration on the anterior tarsus and metatarsus, however in person I don't see it, they look uniform. You can see the lengthier hairs on the patella in my second image. However now I see in the first image that the "longer hairs" actually appear shorter on the patella in my first image. I cropped, zoomed in, and improved contrast on the patella of particular concern, I'm actually leaning harder on T. stirmi now as well. I may need to raise hell today.


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## paassatt (Sep 7, 2011)

WC= wild caught
CB= captive bred

After a certain amount of time has elapsed, you lose the capability to edit/delete your posts.


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## Ciphor (Sep 7, 2011)

That window to edit/delete is real small then because I noticed the double post about 5 seconds after it happened and could not delete or edit. It gives the option, but clicking the delete button does nothing, and same with edit. Oh well. The person I spoke with claimed to be a breeder with the zoology department in CA, so I am assuming CB, However he also said it was T. blondi, which I disagree with today, so I am skeptical of his word at the moment.


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## synyster (Sep 7, 2011)

I was referring to that exact picture. For the uniform colors, they appear in slings and not mature specimens. The zoom you made shows even more clearly that it is T. stirmi. The hair on the patella have to be equal to the hair on the tibia, which clearly in this picture is not the case. Sorry if I disappointed you...

I.E.: Compare yours to this picture of a true T. blondi.








So I based my comment on this. If your picture is too badly taken and dosen't show like it is supposed to, it could be T.blondi but I doubt it... 

And just to add, T. stirmi do not completely lack hair on the patella, it's just shorter and less present.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Ciphor (Sep 8, 2011)

synyster said:


> I was referring to that exact picture. For the uniform colors, they appear in slings and not mature specimens. The zoom you made shows even more clearly that it is T. stirmi. The hair on the patella have to be equal to the hair on the tibia, which clearly in this picture is not the case. Sorry if I disappointed you...
> 
> So I based my comment on this. If your picture is too badly taken and dosen't show like it is supposed to, it could be T.blondi but I doubt it...
> 
> And just to add, T. stirmi do not completely lack hair on the patella, it's just shorter and less present.


No need for apologies, I appreciate you reply! I am as glad as I would be if it was _T. blondi_, I know what species and how to ID it.


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