Bring out your dead

sjl197

sjl197

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
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240
Ok, so the thread title has been used before, but its a cracking title.

I guess this is only for UK members, or those coming to the UK this weekend for the British Tarantula Society (BTS) show, this sunday.

--

Messieurs Gabriel, Longhorn, Gallon etc request that you lovely people bring any recently dead spiders, or old/useless males to us at the BTS trade exhibition this sunday (22nd May 2011) in birmingham UK, where we shall have a lovely big jar of preservative ethanol to store them.

here's the details, if the mods allow please
http://thebts.co.uk/forums/content.php?13-BTS-Exhibition

As many of you know, Ray Gabriel in particular has been building up a big collection of preserved spiders in the oxford museum of natural history. Donated spiders will go there. This collection means that your sadly passed spiders go onto a new and useful future as taxonomy specimens in this ever-growing museum collection, and together provide useful research material for further study.

Anyone with donations, then Ray Gabriel should have a stand at the show, or i will be circling somewhere, just ask anyone official looking where/who we are.

I was tempted to put write our names as Burke and Hare, but just couldnt ...
 
xhexdx

xhexdx

ArachnoGod
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Jul 20, 2007
Messages
5,351
I have a freezer full of dead spiders. Been saving them up to cast in resin, whenever I get around to it...
 
A

AphonopelmaTX

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1,896
Hello Stuart!

Forgive my ignorance on the matter, but how is collecting material from the pet trade, which doesn't have locality data, beneficial to taxonomic studies?

- Lonnie
 
Philth

Philth

N.Y.H.C.
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AphonopelmaTX said:
Hello Stuart!

Forgive my ignorance on the matter, but how is collecting material from the pet trade, which doesn't have locality data, beneficial to taxonomic studies?

- Lonnie
Click to expand...
I was thinking the same thing?:?
Later, Tom
 
sjl197

sjl197

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
240
Hi all,

No problem on the monty python quotes, very british!

Those in the UK working on sunday, shame on you for not attending the BTS. Well, ok, glad to hear there are some people in the UK with jobs!

Lonnie/Tom.
Good question, and you are right, the lack of locality data is an important weakness of pettrade specimens, along with the possibility that some might be hybrids of some sort or another. But, firstly, a fair few species have been described from pettrade material with dubious or completely absent locality data in the past few years. Actually in a few cases the pettrade stock descends from the type species, or stock imported alongside the types. Now, i think its awful to describe species without knowledge of locality data, and this complicates later careful studies. Even worse when a false type locality is given, as now seems the case with several Brachypelma species. I'm just saying that firstly, much pettrade material is as equally without locality data as the type specimens, and secondly much taxonomy can be done without needing to know the collection locality of specimens, though it often helps, particularly on the fine scale comparing closely related species.

I'm much more interested in higher level questions, especially within the subfamily Theraphosinae. Here then, just having exemplar specimens of the different genera on hand to compare is very useful, or to look directly at the
features authors are describing in the type specimens, before all the hassle of trying to find and loan the actual important type specimens. Yes types are vital, and yes specimens with localities are vital for understanding fine scale divisions. Without either, mistakes can be made easily. I'm aware. just it helps anyone who wants to see what for example the genus Ephebopus is like to first have any old specimen of 'Ephebopus' to examine and dissect before thinking about whether it actually corresponds to Ephebopus, and what species it might be. No locality required for this.

Also, just for the hobby, its useful to check what morphological characteristics species sold in the hobby are, for example, i have now seen several species sold as 'Cyclosternum schmardae', and i yet have no idea why any of them were given that name. Want to know what are the more appropriate genera or species to call these?

xhexdrx, do you know what species those are you will cast ? Perhaps it doesnt matter to you, but for me i like to have some idea of what species are being traded, and that's the key thing doing taxonomy on pettrade specimens is good for. I prefer to hear cast in resin than thrown in the trash !
 
xhexdx

xhexdx

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
5,351
Right now I have a P. striata and a MM P. cambridgei already cast.

Let me go pull the stuff out of the freezer...

B. smithi, E. murinus, P. rufilata, H. maculata, P. irminia, B. boehmei, C. fasciatum (or M. zebratum - never bothered to check since she's dead and all), H. incei, P. murinus, A. metallica*, M. balfouri*, B. emilia*, T. violaceus*, H. gigas*, X. immanis, L. violaceopes, A. geniculata*, A. versicolor*, P. cambridgei, B. albopilosum*, A. bicegoi*, G. rosea.

I think that's it.

*Mature males
 
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