Funny picture of my B smithi

tapkoote

Arachnopeon
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Sep 3, 2016
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I've got a 25W red lamp I plug in most every night for an hour or two. Ana is atracted like a moth to the porch light. But it takes 5-10 minutes for it to register, then she'll go over to it. The crickets will dash right to that corner when it comes on. Last night I saw mr. cricket dash to the corner, Ana wandered over later and got up on the glass like she was warming her tummy. And cricket didn't move. About 1/2 hour after I turned the light out, I saw ana in her bunker dancing, and the cricket was gone. Sorry about the fuzzy pic., couldn't get the camera to focus. Because of the reflection i think. That light spot is mr. cricket.
 

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viper69

ArachnoGod
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Your T is attracted to the heat, not the red wavelength of the bulb as they cannot see that wavelength.
 

tapkoote

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Your T is attracted to the heat, not the red wavelength of the bulb as they cannot see that wavelength.
Viper, as a noob, I haven't been able to find much on what they can and canot see.
It's a 25 watt bulb a foot from a glass enclosure. Barley warm to the touch. The bulb that is. My wood stove puts out many times the radiant heat and she's not attracted to it. Maybe it's not a true red a true red wave length.
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
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Viper, as a noob, I haven't been able to find much on what they can and canot see.
It's a 25 watt bulb a foot from a glass enclosure. Barley warm to the touch. The bulb that is. My wood stove puts out many times the radiant heat and she's not attracted to it. Maybe it's not a true red a true red wave length.
There's a free paper via Google that describes the visible wavelength in A. chalcodes I believe, believe the paper is from the late 1960s.

I'm very familiar w/wood stoves and coal stoves, all too familiar.
 

tapkoote

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There's a free paper via Google that describes the visible wavelength in A. chalcodes I believe, believe the paper is from the late 1960s.

Thank you Viper
I did find a paper, I don't think it was the same one. Posibly the wrong species, not good with the scientific names. I did see a mention of night blindness fron prolonged bright light. I did Noticed one time I took a flash of an orb weaver that seemed to go blind.
" There were transient decreases in membrane potentials to light onset followed by slow restorations to initial resting levels, even with flashes longer than 100 ms . These waveforms are in contrast to those reported for wolf spider by DeVoe 1972), where prolonged flashes of light produced marked OFF responses."
This is
the paper- SPECTRAL SENSITIVITIES OF PHOTORECEPTORS
IN THE OCELLI OF THE TARANTULA APHONOPELMA CHALCODES (ARANEAE, THER PHOSIDAE)
R. D.and A. M.Granda.1989.Spectral sensitivities of photoreceptor in the ocelli of thetarantula, Aphonopelma chalcodes (Araneae, Theraphosidae) . J. Arachnol ., 1 :195-205 .

"There is also evidence that parametric changes in stimulus intensity can result in matched waveforms regardless f wavelength, an argument for simple intensity effects but not one that reflects spectral changes. From all these lines of evidence, it is unlikely that Aphonopelma possess any ability to discriminate wavelengths ."
http://www.americanarachnology.org/joa_free/joa_v17_n2/joa_v17_p195.pdf

information transmitted to optic centers in this fashion must of necessity be primitive. Aphonopelma may therefore respond simply to the fundamental dimension of ambient light intensity. Complexities of wavelength discrimination and contour perception are apparently not involved, for the visual system here is functionally homogeneous and shows none of the response complexities seen in
color discriminating eyes .
My guess is she's atracted to low intensty light, not lightning flashes as in thunder storms in the desert. She's a romantic and likes moon light - no matter what color.
How ever I will obtain some other colored 25 W lights of different colors and see what happens. Science is fun.
 

viper69

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That is the paper. The portion you want is Spectral sensitivity, ie what wavelengths it can detect. If I recall correctly it sees a bit into the UV and about 500nm. Red is 620–750 nm so it cannot see your red light.

Your T is not attracted to red light, assuming that species has similar spectral sensitivity as the one in the paper, which is likely the case.
 

tapkoote

Arachnopeon
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Your T is not attracted to red light, assuming that species has similar spectral sensitivity as the one in the paper, which is likely the case.
I'm sure you're right, I'm going to test with blue and a white light.
I know she doesn't like my reading light,( 3-75w bulbs) she'll back into the shadows. If the red light isn't on, she'll come out in front and watch the LCD tv screen, if she's not hungry.
thanks again.

"Complexities of wavelength discrimination and contour perception are apparently not involved, for the visual system here is functionally homogeneous and shows none of the response complexities seen in
color discriminating eyes ."
 

tapkoote

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I'm sure you're right,

"Complexities of wavelength discrimination and contour perception are apparently not involved, for the visual system here is functionally homogeneous and shows none of the response complexities seen in
color discriminating eyes ."
She doesn't care which color, red, green, blue, or white. It is the warmth of the bulb. At 25 watts, I feel very little heat.
Was gone all day today, furnace off, wood stove unlighted. I left the 25 w. light on and she found it, as always. And it does warm the 1/4 inch plate glass above my body temp. I thought glass was a better insulator. Bought a thermal gun, to see how much heat is there.
 

Jeff23

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I am certainly no expert on light waves, but I don't think all bulbs are necessarily clear-cut in one spectrum. I have multiple different red lights bulb fixtures and flashlights and they vary some from each other. My Phillips bulbs seem more orange than red. It seems like my T's can detect when they are powered up.
 

tapkoote

Arachnopeon
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Sep 3, 2016
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I am certainly no expert on light waves, but I don't think all bulbs are necessarily clear-cut in one spectrum. I have multiple different red lights bulb fixtures and flashlights and they vary some from each other. My Phillips bulbs seem more orange than red. It seems like my T's can detect when they are powered up.
How many crickets do you leave in with her?
First off I tried red-then blue-then green -bulbs-all 25 watt. I think like the paper states they're color blind. Attracted to dim light, as maybe the rising/ seting sun, being a desert specices. The blazing sun at noon would bake anything in the open. I'm sure she's attracted to the small change in tempreture the bulb gives.
It feeles like 102* to my hand on the out side of 1/4 inch plate glass. Don't know what the glass, ( a very good insulator) feels like inside.
As far a the number of crickets, usually one, but they seem to learn her habbits. If it's just one, they run around a lot and try to get out. She always notices them, and if she's hungry, takes a stalking stance in the middle of the tank.
If not I'll drop in another, some times they run around together and get cought.
Right now, there's one in there that seems to know her behavior, I may have to feed that one to the spiders out doors, and replace it. It's been there two weeks and out lived three others. One thing I learned about crickets, they can sit incredibly still if they notice something in with them.
I do have a very large tank for my B-Smithi.
 

Formerphobe

Arachnoking
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A good rule of thumb is, if she doesn't eat a prey item within 24 hours, remove it.
Crickets and such have been known to chow down on a molting tarantula.
 
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