A Comprehensive List of Unique Australian Mygalomorphae & Their Husbandry

[RezonantVoid]

This thread is intended to showcase some of the most peculiar spiders Australia has to offer, and explain how to house them as comfortably as I know how to. This will be a smaller, more specialised version of an upcoming revised care guide for all genera I have kept (and there's ALOT). It will be organised in rough alphabetical order but as new species are discovered on pretty much a fortnightly basis here, I may add new species periodically once I've acquired them and successfully replicated their natural behaviour in captivity.

Why split the threads in 2 when I could just make one big mygalomorph husbandry thread to save people jumping between multiple threads? Simply put, the thing is, as much as it might not seem like it would be, non-tarantula mygalomorph keeping, especially in Australia, is alot different from tarantula keeping. Globally, Theraphosidae as a whole displays very little behavioural variation, which makes housing them simple by putting them into either the arboreal or terrestrial categories. Idiopidae on the other hand, Australia's most widespread trapdoor family, sometimes needs husbandry specialised down the species group. Taking this into consideration, in my eyes it would be better to make one section for the species/genera that can be generalised and another section dedicated to ones that require a step up on the effort ladder, so that people aren't sifting through massive text blocks to find info about the obscure species.

The rough order I will be posting information with reference photos for over the coming weeks will be as follows:

1. the entire Anamidae family (only complete family that will be covered)
2. Arbanitis-
~ regular lid builders
~ drawbridge species
~ tube builders
~ other noteworthy species
3. Australothele nambucca
4. Blakistonia-
~ leaf lids
~ "ravioli"
~ semicircular tubes
5. Euoplos turrificus species group
6. arboreal Hadronyche
7. Idiosoma cupulifex and Laverton
8. various dwarf species


As mentioned above, more categories or additions to the ones listed will eventually come along as more species enter the hobby. There's alot of photography to do as well to accompany the information provided in this thread. I hope to have Anamidae done up by the end of the week, and thought I should at least start this thread a few days ahead of time. I hope this thread will prove useful to many over time.

 

[DustyD]

Sounds like a ton of work, but I am sure there will be many interested in it, whether keepers of those species or people with a general spider interest.

 

[Wolfram1]

looking forward to it

 

[Miagic Mike]

wow some amazing photos man.

 

[RezonantVoid]

SECTION 1: ANAMIDAE (WISHBONE SPIDERS)

GENERAL INFORMATION:
The Anamidae family, more commonly known to some Australians as "wishbone spiders", is made up of 10 genera that are endemic to Australia. Their unusual common name comes from the habit some species display of building "Y" shaped burrow structures with multiple entrances. The second entrance is usually concealed and serves as an escape passage for the spider in the event of a centipede attack. The entire family is currently considered mildly venomous. A number of species particularly from Aname, Proshermacha and Teyl are capable of reaching very large sizes, with a few regularly surpassing 3" (75mm) DLS.

QUICK IDENTIFICATION GUIDE:
Probably the most visible defining feature of these spiders is their unusually elongated chelicerae. Many of them possess 2 or more colours across the body with or without some degree of patterning on the abdomen, and just as many are decorated with subtle or very strong metallic colouration. Analysis of spermathecae or male emboli are generally key, although Teyl sp. can sometimes be immediately ID'd if they have a recurved fovea.



An adult female Namea cf. dahmsi, from Queensland, and an unknown Namea species from Toowoomba.


A freshly molted Proshermacha sp. Adelaide Hills, 11 hours post molt.



2 different species of Teyl from different areas of South Australia, showing the vast visual differentiation that can occur even within a single genus.


Kwonkan sp., exceptionally rare in the hobby.



2 more undescribed Anamidae from Black Springs, New South Wales, and Mt Lofty, South Australia.

WHAT MAKES THEM SPECIAL:
Not only are these spiders among the largest mygalomorphs in the country, they are also the most colourful. In a country colour starved with their tarantulas, such large, metallic and vivid spiders are a welcome drop of colour on an otherwise brown canvas. These spiders come in a dazzling array of colours from midnight black with a silver sheen to neon red and orange topped with flashes of dense golden reflective setae. Probably my favourite species is Proshermacha sp. Adelaide Hills, which has a pinky red base colour, interesting stripey markings on the abdomen made up of lots of tiny dots, a nearly complete coating of golden hairs on top and an unusual purple-blue sheen from some angles. Despite these traits, very few keepers are well aware of them or focus on collecting them, which meant for a while I had prime pick of a number of the first ever hobby specimens for alot of species. The burrows of nearly all of them are standard open holes, but some from the genus Kwonkan make small freestanding towers out of pebbles and twigs.

Quite interesting to me as well is the sizes of their egg sac yields. Compared to some Idiopids which can have over 150 tiny 3mm slings, South Australian Anamids seem to have around 10-50 slings which are the same size as tarantulas of the same instar. While I don't think many studies have been done on their conservation status, this to me indicates that their populations can be more impacted by disturbance and collection than other types of mygalomorph.

As appealing as these spiders may sound, they are unfortunately also unique in that they're some of the worst mygalomorphs to start out with. With a few exceptions, most of them prefer arid areas with compact sandy soils. WC adults seem so adjusted to these environments that they suffer greatly from the average peat/coir and sand setups. This is displayed by a refusal to permanently burrow/near constant wandering around the surface, an eventual disinterest in food, progressively becoming more and more lethargic and finally dying. Sometimes you can tell your spider is doing this behaviour at night if over time, the entire surface of the setup becomes blanketed in webbing. If happy, they should not leave any significant amount of webbing outside the burrow. While it's not really talked about much, me and a few other keepers have also noted that the arid zone species have significantly higher food requirements than just about any other mygalomorph family in the country. This means even when housed properly, they can die easily from a keeper becoming complacent with feeding schedules. I am no exception to this mistake.

HUSBANDRY:
It's no exaggeration to say these spiders especially have played a large part in my shifting away from peat and coir usage. My current methods of housing are still not 100% to my liking but seem to suit the majority of South Australian and Queensland species.

I use a mixture of natural red soil with partly clay content and red desert sand for their substrate. Adding organic matter into their substrate seems to almost always prompt the above mentioned behaviour, so the less of it you have the better. The specific type or colour of soil you start with shouldn't be too important as the consistency seems to be the biggest factor in keeping these (and most other types) happy long term. You want to find stuff that is not wet/sticky/rocky and compact, and that can still be crumbled in your hands just by pressing it with your fingers. You can find soil like this in all sorts of places. A good way to scout for it is simply driving around and looking for vertical embankments besides the road. If the embankment is above the surface of the road, then you don't have to worry about oils or pollutants potentially having washed off the road and soaking into the soil. Private property with bushland is also a good place to look for it as long as you have permission.

Once I have the desired soil, I combine this with the desert sand in no exact ratio, but roughly between 50:50 or 30:70 (soil to sand). The end result is a mixture that has high drainage and excellent water absorbance, perfectly holds it's shape when compressed, but is still soft enough for the spiders to easily burrow into. Additional water should NOT be added during the mixing process unless the substrate cannot hold its shape at all. I would recommend choosing an enclosure that allows for between 15-25cm (about 6"-10")of substrate, but even more if possible. They dig between 30-45cm in the wild so the closer you can get to that depth, the better reception to the enclosure you will usually get. I fill the enclosure almost all the way to the top and make sure I have decent ventilation in the lid. Additional cross ventilation is handy if you will be stacking enclosures on top of each other but otherwise will dry out the substrate too fast.

I would not recommend too much surface decor at first as they will generally bury everything under a huge mountain of excavated soil. Once they have finished the majority of the burrow, then I move in and start adding decorations. Here are 2 examples of fairly simple arid style setups that can work.

Decorated with native wood and gum leaves-


More open, less decorated style with dried grasses and sandstone-


For larger specimens, I feed them 2 or more large crickets per week. Their venom seems ill suited for prey like roaches and meal worms, and while they will take both of those they almost never manage to fully eat them. Slings are less picky with housing and can be set up using traditional methods, but I hate doing this as it replaces their natural preferences with man made alternative, and the focus behind my husbandry standards is always to give my spiders as natural a home as I can physically replicate. Sometimes it can take me up to 3 tries before I get a setup that works for a certain Anamid, but it's well worth the effort.

 

[Georges Simp Pierre]

Great info!