Arana Polita - Chicken Spider Diary

[AbraxasComplex]

Or is the female that suspected male?

The female molted (confirmed female from molt), and found the male in the other tank.


I will try and get pics tonight when I am done at work.


As for a different response I keep all my males in with the female(s) till they pass on from natural causes. My MM M.balfouri is still living with the female peacefully. So are all the MM Holothele incei, Heterothele villosella, Heterothele gabonensis, Ischnothele caudata, etc. Yes they act differently around the females, but I have not seen any munching except for old MM H.incei being grabbed by females that just produced/hatched their sacs. This usually happened after the male wouldn't leave the female alone.


I suspect that the MM CS will share the burrow with the female for a short time, like with Hysterocrates gigas pairs, before he begins his quest for another receptive female. We won't know for sure though till he molts again.

 

[AbraCadaver]

Haven't really followed this thread, but I need to start! That is a GORGEOUS species!

 

[upwith inverts!]

To answer your question, yes the males do color up a bit before their ultimate molt. My P. Plattyomma had pink stripes on his leg a little bit 2 molts before ultimate, and it became more obvious 1 molt before ultimate.

 

[TVspiderman]

and i said I would do this again!

Hi This is Martin Nicholas, the one to hate if Chicken Spider threads get on your nerves!

For the last 10 years I can guarantee that I will get at least 2-3 emails per week asking me about the chicken spider; the questions are always the same.

"has it been identified yet?"

"do you have any for sale?"

"I was sold this <insert pic of random black spider> as a chicken spider, is it?"

"Was it you on that show?"

I knew that one day these spiders would reach the hobby, I am surprised that it has taken this long. What I am pleased about is that the breeding cultures detailed on these pages seem to be in the hands of knowledgeable enthusiasts and not "Sling-farmers" long may you continue to learn, you eggsacks be fertile and the slow roll-out of this fascinating species into trade continue. The pics shown on this thread certainly seem to be the real deal (and thats the first time I have been able to say that!)

My involvement in the Chicken Spider project is now training the Jungle guides and wildlife interpreters in South Eastern Peru to find, identify and teach about the spiders of the region to visiting tourists.

This year I found my first wild Male CS (after 8 expeditions to the region!) pic attached

I know the speculation will continue about the identification, I can only go on the conclusion of Andrew Smith who compared an adults female chicken spider to the TYPE specimens of all Lasiodora, Xenethis, Pamphobeteus etc etc.

It is definately a Pampho but is suitably different to antinious, insignis, tetragnatha and all the others to be considered something new.

Happy breeding

 

[NevularScorpion]

do you guys think this sp is available to the U.S. already ? I seen someone selling them a while ago but i'm not sure if they are the real one

 

[Falk]

Martin Nicholas feel free to share some of your experiences with these cool creatures.

 

[Crows Arachnids]

Hi This is Martin Nicholas, the one to hate if Chicken Spider threads get on your nerves!

For the last 10 years I can guarantee that I will get at least 2-3 emails per week asking me about the chicken spider; the questions are always the same.

"has it been identified yet?"

"do you have any for sale?"

"I was sold this <insert pic of random black spider> as a chicken spider, is it?"

"Was it you on that show?"

I knew that one day these spiders would reach the hobby, I am surprised that it has taken this long. What I am pleased about is that the breeding cultures detailed on these pages seem to be in the hands of knowledgeable enthusiasts and not "Sling-farmers" long may you continue to learn, you eggsacks be fertile and the slow roll-out of this fascinating species into trade continue. The pics shown on this thread certainly seem to be the real deal (and thats the first time I have been able to say that!)

My involvement in the Chicken Spider project is now training the Jungle guides and wildlife interpreters in South Eastern Peru to find, identify and teach about the spiders of the region to visiting tourists.

This year I found my first wild Male CS (after 8 expeditions to the region!) pic attached

I know the speculation will continue about the identification, I can only go on the conclusion of Andrew Smith who compared an adults female chicken spider to the TYPE specimens of all Lasiodora, Xenethis, Pamphobeteus etc etc.

It is definately a Pampho but is suitably different to antinious, insignis, tetragnatha and all the others to be considered something new.

Happy breeding

I know pictures do not justify the actual appearance of the spider, however... I have had TONS of males, identical to that (from what I can tell), they were.... oh yes, Phamphobeteus antinous. Are the legs (the swollen section) what determine this as a "CS"? If so, I've got plenty of those.

 

[PhobeToPhile]

That's interesting. Have you ever tried keeping a sack communally crow?

 

[Crows Arachnids]

That's interesting. Have you ever tried keeping a sack communally crow?

Not with this species (Phamphobeteus antinous/"CS"). I have done this with many Avicularia and the Thrixoplema ockerti.

 

[KenTheBugGuy]

If there are indeed 2 different species I am sure they are wide spread in the US hobby already just many people think they have a Pa Ant as that is what they all come in as. THe trappers exporting these guys probably don't know the difference and collect the Pa Ants in such large numbers I would be GREATLY suprised if they did not have some of these guys mixed in there. The real thing lacking is a perfect way to identify the 2 apart and if we can get that down we can weed out real from fakes. I am sure once it is all hashed out many people will realize they have a "chicken spider" or that its just slight differences in the same species by area collected as we have seen with some US aphonopelma. Who knows, all speculation but interesting thread non the less and enjoy reading the research being done here.

Research is all our hobby has and atleast someone is trying

Also just to give people an idea on numbers I would say no less than 400 Pam Ants have come into the US in the last year from over there. Probably a lot more.... those are just ones I knew about and had an estimated number. Its probably closer to 1000 of them as I have seen other reptile importers selling them at shows who had no clue what they even had.

 

[ftorres]

Hello All,
Very interesting thread. I love the info and the pics.

Ken, I got my first "P antonious" from Peru almost two years ago and I saw only 200 of them in what seemed to be the first import to the states with Ts of different species from Peru.

The following year many more came in very very similar to the first ones.

I do hope we have the CS in the hobby already and there are many people trying to breed,hatch or raise babies from these WC Ts.

good luck to all.

 

[AbraxasComplex]

Hi This is Martin Nicholas, the one to hate if Chicken Spider threads get on your nerves!

For the last 10 years I can guarantee that I will get at least 2-3 emails per week asking me about the chicken spider; the questions are always the same.

"has it been identified yet?"

"do you have any for sale?"

"I was sold this <insert pic of random black spider> as a chicken spider, is it?"

"Was it you on that show?"

I knew that one day these spiders would reach the hobby, I am surprised that it has taken this long. What I am pleased about is that the breeding cultures detailed on these pages seem to be in the hands of knowledgeable enthusiasts and not "Sling-farmers" long may you continue to learn, you eggsacks be fertile and the slow roll-out of this fascinating species into trade continue. The pics shown on this thread certainly seem to be the real deal (and thats the first time I have been able to say that!)

My involvement in the Chicken Spider project is now training the Jungle guides and wildlife interpreters in South Eastern Peru to find, identify and teach about the spiders of the region to visiting tourists.

This year I found my first wild Male CS (after 8 expeditions to the region!) pic attached

I know the speculation will continue about the identification, I can only go on the conclusion of Andrew Smith who compared an adults female chicken spider to the TYPE specimens of all Lasiodora, Xenethis, Pamphobeteus etc etc.

It is definately a Pampho but is suitably different to antinious, insignis, tetragnatha and all the others to be considered something new.

Happy breeding

Thanks for the post Martin. I have also been getting the same questions and amount as you. Haha.

As for the pictures I promised of a freshly molted female I forgot to post them before I left for vacation. I will be back tomorrow night and shall post them then.

 

[AbraxasComplex]

Sorry about the long wait for an update, and I can't seem to find the pic of the freshly molted female anymore... But I have some news.


Before I left for a job site on Monday I noticed what I thought was a female molting in the large tank. Hoping she'd be ok I threw a bunch of grapes and carrots in the cage so any feeder items wouldn't munch on her.

After a week of nervous anticipation, since I did not come home till Friday, I grabbed my flashlight to check on the molting female. To my surprise I saw a flash of blue... and hooks!

So I now have a beautiful male. In certain light his front 6 legs, pedipalps, and fangs reflect a gorgeous blue hue. I couldn't capture all the legs at once with that hue, but I managed to capture his colour with my camera. Once my two large females finally molt (premolt takes forever with these guys), I'll pair them up.

 

[Falk]

Thanks for the update

 

[AbraxasComplex]

I forgot to mention. This male was housed with the group of 4 large tarantulas. It was the second biggest in the burrow. 1 large female, 1 subadult (the male), 2 juveniles.

This not only shows that I have issues with ventral sexing :wall:, but also that males continue to stay with the family group till at least they mature. I was suspecting that only females and extremely young males cohabitate in the same burrow and males near maturity would venture off to molt to avoid being munched by an unruly female.

 

[KoriTamashii]

Gorgeous! Love love love what you've done here. Such dedication!

 

[pato_chacoana]

Oh boy! that picture throws away the theory of being the same CS that Martin found! look at the blue sheen...classic antinous huh. Even the Pampho I found had no blue sheen...totally black and a slight purple sheen at certain flash angle.

No purple, showing more 'real' color

slight purple

Anyway, I guess there are many really cool Pamphobeteus sp. and variants!!!

Cheers,
Pato

 

[AbraxasComplex]

It could be the same as Martin, but the one he found could have been several months passed a the molt. I know with the males of all of my other species as they age they become more dull and decrepit looking. Monocentropus balfouri is a prime example of a species molting out bright blue and ending up being a black/grey after two or three months.

 

[pato_chacoana]

More dull yes, but not losing the entire blue sheen, the spider Martin found looks freshly molted anyway. Besides the spider you posted pics of has different setae in their legs, also the legs morphology looking different at first glance at least. Clearly a different spider to me. But a beautiful spider nonetheless.

 

[jimip]

Oh boy! that picture throws away the theory of being the same CS that Martin found! look at the blue sheen...classic antinous huh. Even the Pampho I found had no blue sheen...totally black and a slight purple sheen at certain flash angle.

No purple, showing more 'real' color

slight purple

Anyway, I guess there are many really cool Pamphobeteus sp. and variants!!!

Cheers,
Pato

i find it in poor taste to revel in fact of being correct. ive read through this and all over the place i have found naysayers and critics trying to smash something but it doesnt matter if its not a chicken spider. so you have soon to be 25 tarantulas in a tank? how about 4? this is wonderful no matter if its purple, blue, black, or brown. does it realy mean so much to you to stomp on people like that?