Arana Polita - Chicken Spider Diary

[Terry D]

Abraxas, Sorry to hear about the dud! Good luck with the next sac. The spiders seem to be doing well in their communal set-up, though. Something's just awesome about that- giant spiders in a communal setting............!! Keep us posted

 

[BCscorp]

Giant spiders in a communal setting is really cool!

 

[Thehat222]

I just read it all.
Wow.
Any updates?

 

[Phlerr]

Just got thru reading the ENTIRE thread but it was well worth it.......very very cool. Still no updates?

 

[Robotponys]

+1 it's been a while. Anything happen?

 

[AbraxasComplex]

Just moved to my new place and one of my younger females just molted. In a week or two I'll pair her up with my multitude of males... Of 8 offspring I kept, only 1 was female. The other 8 I sent to another person also only 1 was female. There seems to be an overabundance of males with this species. Perhaps it is due to the females living in the same burrow and increasing survival chances or may just have been this batch. We'll see when I breed them successfully.

2 adult females are still in heavy premolt. So much waiting.

 

[Malhavoc's]

Just moved to my new place and one of my younger females just molted. In a week or two I'll pair her up with my multitude of males... Of 8 offspring I kept, only 1 was female. The other 8 I sent to another person also only 1 was female. There seems to be an overabundance of males with this species. Perhaps it is due to the females living in the same burrow and increasing survival chances or may just have been this batch. We'll see when I breed them successfully.

2 adult females are still in heavy premolt. So much waiting.

Thought: Some lizards tend to reproduce Asexualy, Stickbugs aswell, with al of the offspring being clones of the parant, is there any chance of this in this spider? with fertalized eggs becoming male, unfertalized female? Doubtful, I think but still worth asking.

 

[Tarac]

Thought: Some lizards tend to reproduce Asexualy, Stickbugs aswell, with al of the offspring being clones of the parant, is there any chance of this in this spider? with fertalized eggs becoming male, unfertalized female? Doubtful, I think but still worth asking.

Hmm, yes the canonical (vertebrate) example of parthenogenesis is the Komodo dragon:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7122/full/4441021a.html

Some problems with that statement though- they are not always full "clones" i.e. this is usually not like budding in plants, bees, etc. These offspring are frequently genetically unique, albeit limited by the mother's genome. Depends on why you need to reproduce asexually- for more workers, who cares what gender. But if you have a population crunch, you need to be able to make the opposite gender in which case a clone would be obsolete, right? In Komodos it's heterogametic females (ZW in the example used) and homogametic males (ZZ in this example). Usually this results in male offspring although there are rare examples of a WW which survived and were viable. However it generally results in males and females, if any are produced at all, are usually sterile. The males are not though. It's thought for Komodos this gives a huge advantage to a giant reptile that inhabits small islands as a single female could easily find herself the only Komodo on any one of a number of small islands and thereby still be able to repopulate. It's even postulated this happens in bigger populations as there is a large slant in favor of male Komodos overall. Interesting condition. Did you know there are also unisexual vertebrates that are obligate parthenogens? Nature is truly resourceful, no?

Don't think I've ever heard anything about this in Tarantulas but it isn't beyond the realm of possibility at all as there are not a small number of other inverts that are parthenogens. Would take significant molecular data or a long term breeding project to nail it down.

Love this set up, Pamphos are my favorite. I have an empty 75 gallon I might try this with. Thanks for trying it out, very encouraging!

 

[Malhavoc's]

Thank you for the elaboration Tarac, very informative!

 

[SgtSparkles]

wait, it from this post it sounds like you had a few offspring make it, though a page back your sacs were duds. are you referring to the younger t's in the initial shipment?

Just moved to my new place and one of my younger females just molted. In a week or two I'll pair her up with my multitude of males... Of 8 offspring I kept, only 1 was female. The other 8 I sent to another person also only 1 was female. There seems to be an overabundance of males with this species. Perhaps it is due to the females living in the same burrow and increasing survival chances or may just have been this batch. We'll see when I breed them successfully.

2 adult females are still in heavy premolt. So much waiting.

 

[Protectyaaaneck]

are you referring to the younger t's in the initial shipment?

I think that's what he means.

 

[AbraxasComplex]

Update.

Pairing has began with a freshly mature female and a freshly molted female. 1 more female is in heavy premolt.

We'll know if it is successful in 3-4 months. If multiple sacs are produced I will be incubating at least one myself to ensure young survive this time.

 

[Robotponys]

Crossing my fingers!! This sure is exciting!! Good luck!

 

[Yoxigan]

Wow.



Just wow.

 

[afronate]

I've been following this thread since the very beginning which was way before I even became an arachnoboards member. SO glad to see that it's still going strong. Thank you so much for having such an amazing attitude and dedication to these incredible T's and sharing them with us.

 

[Armpit]

this. thread. is. incredible.

 

[AbraxasComplex]

So one of the females started creating the massive globe of web in her burrow. Sac is on its way.

 

[KenTheBugGuy]

Just curious

Have you sent any of the specimens off to any of the people that are identifying tarantulas? Just to make sure its not just an antonious from a different region with different behaviours, hairs ect? I have seen mean ap chalcodes, hair kicking chalcodes and nice puppy dog chalcodes so think getting them identified would definately be cool for the hobby and you Since its not a described species many of them would love to get a new species described and your name would even be put on the paper work because you helped. Even if it happened to be another pampho antonious from a different region it would still be a step forward in understanding the species that exist....

 

[AbraxasComplex]

I do have a couple of males nearly on their way out. Not sure how I should preserve said specimens so they survive a trip without turning to a gelatinous mass.

I also hope I get viable sacs this time and will send a few slings off. Who do you suggest? Rick West is nearby.

 

[KenTheBugGuy]

well Rick is probably your closest and easist bet as i dont know any one else in canada and I am sure he would love to get a new specimen ...if you email him I am sure he knows how to perserve them the best too for identification purposes. I know there are certain chemicals that damage DNA ect and some that dont.