Black earth tiger

[LimaMikeSquared]

Robc I've been looking at your picture threads, the Haplo's are a real puzzle aren't they. There is a guy on the threads called Soren - 'phormingochilus', and he was so helpful to me in identifying my Longpipes and took the trouble to explain it all as well, see if you can get his attention and see what he thinks.

 

[EDED]

And here is another similar report, I collect them as I find them as I have a H.Schmidti, H.Longpipes and a H.Albostatium, -



This is by far one of the most impressive Asian Tarantulas and possibly largest of all Asian Tarantulas. It is a heavily bodied species and is different shades of gold and yellow (depending on colour form) and is a real beast. It requires a rather spacious terrarium with deep substrate to establish a burrow in. It is very important that you avoid overheating the enclosure, room temperature is preferable for this species. In nature at the Tam-Dao (Northern Vietnamese studied population) H.schmidti excavates burrows in clay soil slopes on very humid forest areas at the higher elevations, where at the cool period the night temperatures drop below zero. You have to be very attentive when maintaining them - they are extremely fast and do not last long if they escape usually due to dehydration which is a common cause of death.
Females have been found with eggsacks in the middle of Summer months to late Autumn. An eggsack usually contain 180 - 200 spiderlings which are surprisingly large (1cm) with huge appetites and are fast growing. Females reach maturity at about 2 years and males even quicker. A very interesting feature of this particular tarantula is maternal care, rarely seen and recorded among Theraphosids in nature. The females not only defend the offspring but also feeds them with pre-killed prey (E.Rybaltovsky, 2002).
There are two main color forms of this species: The "Gold" and "Dark" clearly separated by colour. The "Gold" one is overall yellow / Gold / brown and the "Dark" that have some yellow hairs on an overall dark colouration. A closely related species Haplopelma hainanum from Hainen Island is sometimes mistaken as the dark form or sometimes sold as a "black form" these are in fact a different species. This species is a must for any Asian Tarantula lover. But be warmed it is very aggressive and fast spider.

since you posted this,
here is something interesting to read http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showpost.php?p=813382&postcount=1

remember though that post is dated awhile back, at that time it was noted that DCF was hainanum, not sure if this has changed since then, but there are no other characters as of yet that can distinguish DCF and hainanum. so it's hainanum,,,weird huh?

I think as long as the spider has a deep burrow, it should be fine. They are 'happiest' and 'non-threatening' when they have a burrow to run into.

 

[LimaMikeSquared]

Thats very interesting, and very clear too. The 2 articles I posted have obviously come from the same original source as they are almost the same word for word. I have read another one somewhere that says H.Schmidti has only a gold colour form. The Wilkipedia confuses by calling the H.Huwenum the 'Golden Earth Tiger' which is the name generally associated with the H.Schmidti, and reading the article again I think it seems to say what you do but in a confusing way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplopelma_schmidti

mind you they say that any one can post anything on Wikipedia

 

[sgt.batguano]

It may not become more defensive day by day, each day being more high strung than the last, obviously, but it will certainly become more defensive once it settles in, compared to when it is first introduced to the enclosure. If you disagree, then we must agree to disagree. I don't doubt that it isn't written anywhere, but it is the truth, nonetheless.

yes i have seen this repeatedly with a number of species. thet determine where their territory is and they defend it more vigorously than if they had not settled in. this is seen with many animals. including perverted peruvian pearl bats.