Brachypelma smithi carapace patterns

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
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Thought I would share examples of carapace patterns from 4 of my AF B smithi (CITES). All pictures taken Jan 22.

PS. I know this is not an accurate way to ID B smithi from B hamorii but the patterns are interesting nonetheless I think on each of these individuals.

20220116_115742.jpg
 

Egon

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Do you have full body shots? Just curious as I'm raising my first B. smithi sling right now.
 

Liquifin

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Do you have pictures of their spermathecae from any molts? It would be interesting to see some in comparison to B. hamorii spermathecae if possible.
 

The Spider House

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Do you have pictures of their spermathecae from any molts? It would be interesting to see some in comparison to B. hamorii spermathecae if possible.
Can only find these atm on my phone. Hope they help. Not all belong to the 4 shared. Some are on other smithi/ex annitha I use and at various life stages.
20210810_112758.jpg 20210830_100102.jpg 20210810_115322.jpg 20210807_000915.jpg 20210707_171221.jpg 20210703_151835.jpg 20210622_144357.jpg 20201113_213910.jpg
 

viper69

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It's more helpful to label the pix w/the sex parts, at least for me. Nice images though!
 

Jess S

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The photos are helpful to a point, but it would be MUCH better if you sent them to me so I can examine them with my own eyes. Ya know, for scientific reasons. Of course, you can have them back when I finish looking …..👀🙄😂
 

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
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It's more helpful to label the pix w/the sex parts, at least for me. Nice images though!
Some are labelled and typically I try to do a collage with the DLS, spermathecae and a picture of the recently moulted spider for my record. Works for me anyway 😊

I was asked for spermathecae pictures and that's all I had as once the collage is done I usually delete the originals. 👍
 

AphonopelmaTX

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Do you have pictures of their spermathecae from any molts? It would be interesting to see some in comparison to B. hamorii spermathecae if possible.
The best source of spermathecae pictures of the Brachypelma species would be the revisionary work by Mendoza and Francke. That publication contains many pictures of the spermathecae of both B. smithi and B. hamorii which illustrate the variation and what to look for to distinguish the two species from each other.

 

Wolfram1

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I would be interested if the descriptions hold up when compared to multible examples with known background, like the 4 spiders here, or if the variations within just one of the species are actually larger than the differences between them ....
 

AphonopelmaTX

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One of my AF B hamorii moulted yesterday so I have put spermathecae pics side by side for a comparison between the 2 species
View of the spermathecae is being blocked by the uterus externus in these photos. For Brachypelma, you need to cut the spermathecae out of the molt, flip it over, and take a picture of the ventral side. The difference between B. smithi and B. hamorri is in the spermathecal base plates which is only viewable from the bottom. The shape of the spermathecae itself varies too much in both species so it is useless for telling the two species apart.

Example...

Brachypelma_hamorii_spermatheca_ventral.jpg
 

The Spider House

Arachnobaron
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View of the spermathecae is being blocked by the uterus externus in these photos. For Brachypelma, you need to cut the spermathecae out of the molt, flip it over, and take a picture of the ventral side. The difference between B. smithi and B. hamorri is in the spermathecal base plates which is only viewable from the bottom. The shape of the spermathecae itself varies too much in both species so it is useless for telling the two species apart.

Example...

View attachment 408791
I will do that with the hamorii but don't have any fresh moults from any of the smithi yet.
Thanks for the info and guidance
 

AphonopelmaTX

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I will do that with the hamorii but don't have any fresh moults from any of the smithi yet.
Thanks for the info and guidance
Same here. I have had a large subadult male and female of B. smithi in my collection for about 2 years now and the male molted once and the female has yet to. The female needs to hurry it up a bit. :rolleyes:

I'm trying to do the same thing of getting a side-by-side picture of those spermathecal base plates so when the "is my tarantula a B. smithi or B. hamorri" posts come up in the Tarantula ID gallery, I'm prepared with an answer. :rofl:
 

c.h.esteban

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Here is an example with older hobby/pet trade specimens that match with the described characteristics (Mendoza & Francke 2017) and shows the mixup in the hobby.
B hamorii vs smithi sperm S.jpg
 
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