- Joined
- Oct 11, 2007
- Messages
- 550
Actually, I think OBT and A avic can be very easily compared. Although I will admit that I have not kept A avic communally... I would argue that OBTs aren't definitionally "communal." They are tolerant... which seems to be exactly what you are arguing about A. avics... and I AGREE with you.You can't compare P. murinus to A. avicularia regarding communal tendencies. The two species have nothing to do with each other. Surely you understand this?
In both the example that you quoted, and my experience with OBTs, the spiders have established their own territory, the outer edges of which do overlap... and they do end up interacting... but they don't share burrows, or hang out together. My OBTs do end up building shared web structures, but these seem to act more as barriers from each other, rather than as shared territory, or living structures. I'm pretty sure the only reason they have done this is because I have severely limited their living space. When I have kept them in larger enclosures (3 in a 10 gallon) they did not build shared web structures, and lived in separate burrows (though they would interact at times). Sounds pretty much like how A avic goes.
If both are technically "tolerant," and not "communal," and seem to react to each other in very similar ways, then I don't see why the comparison is not valid.
More to the point, clearly the OP wants to throw 3 A avics in the same enclosure, and see how it goes. People do this with pokies all the time, and call it "communal." From what I've read, pokies and avics have been known to be found inhabiting territories in close vicinity to each other in the wild (most likely, it has been theorized, due not to their innate friendliness, but due to lack of other suitable habitat)... which if you want to get hung up on semantics, would make them "parasocial" or "sub-social."
And for the record... in comparison to Delena cancerides, Diaea ergandros (the only two non-web dwelling social spiders) Anelosimus eximius, Mallos gregalis, Agelena consociata, or Stegodyphus dumicola -all true spiders that are actually social spiders -no tarantula is actually social. There has never (at least to my knowledge) been a study that has shown that tarantulas that sometimes live in shared burrows in the wild get any added benefit from doing so, when compared to individuals of the same species that live in isolation.
So... if you want to argue semantics... which it seems you do... there's my position on the semantics of the issue. There are no truly social tarantulas, but there are examples of varying degrees of tolerant cohabitation. Avics OBTs, and pokies are part of that spectrum, along with H incei, H gigas, and others. However, the OP was using the term "communal" colloquially, the way it is frequently used in the hobby, to mean that they want to try to successfully keep 3 Avics in the same enclosure. Though this is a risky choice for any keeper, and especially for a first-timer, it's not unheard of, and has been done successfully, in particular, with avics.