Ephebopus cyanognathus defense

Protectyaaaneck

Arachnoking
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Finally got around to uploading this short vid that I took while taking pics of this guy the other day. This is the first time I've seen this type of urticating hair defense. And before anyone says anything about me using my finger as the prodding device, I'm fully aware that I could've gotten bit. So no need to tell me about it. :)

Sorry the vid goes in and out of focus but I was having difficulty holding the camera and getting this guy to do his trick.

[youtube]hJSfPo9Pk-E[/youtube]
 

Moltar

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Nice documentation of a behavior not often seen. My E murinus is such a pussycat i've only seen her urticate once and that was from the mouth of her burrow. Was there any significant effect? Are you itchy now?
 

Protectyaaaneck

Arachnoking
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Wow. Cool vid. That's the first time I've seen that.
Thanks. First for me as well, at least in video form. I'm pretty sure someone on the boards here has a really nice picture capturing the act. I think it's Tunedbeat if I'm not mistaken, and it actually shows the u-hairs in the air. Pretty neat picture.

Nice documentation of a behavior not often seen. My E murinus is such a pussycat i've only seen her urticate once and that was from the mouth of her burrow. Was there any significant effect? Are you itchy now?
I know, I was stoked when it happened. I think I was lucky to have seen it. There were no ill effects. I never felt itchy in the slightest and my face was probably no more than a foot from the spider itself. I think they're similar to Avicularia u-hairs in the sense they don't affect me whatsoever. Might not be the case with someone else though.
 

Moltar

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I know, I was stoked when it happened. I think I was lucky to have seen it. There were no ill effects. I never felt itchy in the slightest and my face was probably no more than a foot from the spider itself. I think they're similar to Avicularia u-hairs in the sense they don't affect me whatsoever. Might not be the case with someone else though.
Actually, Ephebopus have fairly unique urticating hairs, so i've been curious how they affect us. See the chart below, Ephebopus urties are type V.

 

Protectyaaaneck

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That's the prettiest Blue Fang I have personally ever seen.
Thanks, it's one of the offspring from the sac I got last year. :)

Actually, Ephebopus have fairly unique urticating hairs, so i've been curious how they affect us. See the chart below, Ephebopus urties are type V.

Wow, really neat, Ethan. Where did you find that chart? Are Avicularia u-hairs on there as well?
 

Ms.X

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Nice catch, J! Thanks for taking the time to record and post this. I've never observed any of my Ephebopus throwing urts either, so it was really awesome to see one in action :)
 

Moltar

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Avics rock type 2. There is a brief breakdown of some species at the wikipedia article
--> here <--
 

Protectyaaaneck

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Nice catch, J! Thanks for taking the time to record and post this. I've never observed any of my Ephebopus throwing urts either, so it was really awesome to see one in action :)
Thanks, Becca. No problem, recording things like this is something I plan on doing a lot more now that I have a nice camera to do so. :)

Avics rock type 2. There is a brief breakdown of some species at the wikipedia article
--> here <--
Sweet. I tend to forget to search for things like that in Wikipedia.
 

Zoltan

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Actually, Ephebopus have fairly unique urticating hairs, so i've been curious how they affect us. See the chart below, Ephebopus urties are type V.

I don't know where the image is from, but the figure of the type V hair is wrong: it looks like the stalk and the proximal part of a type II hair that is figured in Cooke et al. (1972). Also, I think the orientation of the type I is wrong, the base on the picture is actually the top, and then type III and IV are simply mixed up. It looks like all the figures are taken from the Cooke et al. (1972) article, I suggest taking a look at that if you want to see accurate and bigger figures. How the type V hair looks is illustrated by Foelix et al. (2009).

References:
  • Cooke, J. A. L., V. D. Roth & F. M. Miller. 1972. The urticating hairs of theraphosid spiders. American Museum Novitates 2498: 1-43. Online at http://hdl.handle.net/2246/2705
  • Foelix, R., Rast, B. & B. Erb. 2009. Palpal urticating hairs in the tarantula Ephebopus: fine structure and mechanism of release. Journal of Arachnology 37 (3): 292-298. Download from here, found the link here.
 

Moltar

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Thanks Zoltan, I'll look into that. This picture has been floating around for a while, no idea where it originated. I've seen it at a few different places besides wikipedia.
 

Zoltan

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Thanks Zoltan, I'll look into that. This picture has been floating around for a while, no idea where it originated. I've seen it at a few different places besides wikipedia.
Someone probably sewed it together from the Cooke et al. article, where fig. 4. is the type I, fig. 9. is the type II, fig. 13. is the type III, fig. 17 is the type IV and what is labelled as "type V" in the pic you posted looks similar to fig. 20, which illustrates the stalk and the proximal portion of a type II hair. Cooke et al. only described 4 types, types V and VI were discovered later.
 

Mez

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Wow, pretty cool, but also, how is it so slow?! Mine is like a rocket!
 
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