Gasteracantha ID Help

[Snapple]

I picked up this beauty last thursday from a pet store who helped me import her. She was sold to me as Gasteracantha cancriformis, but her body shape and colours look way off to me.

Now I'm in a bit of a panic because it turns out she laid a viable egg sac in her container before she was shipped, and the babies have hatched. I have the whole sac in a small deli cup with a damp-ish paper towel and very tiny ventilation holes.

I've asked other groups and even went to another exotic pet store to see if they could ID her, but still no luck. I'm hoping maybe someone on here much more knowledgeable than me could help with the ID so that I can provide these spiders with the proper care they deserve.

As a final note, I'm unable to get the name of the vendor as the pet store is not too keen on iving up the name, so there's no way for me to contact the vendor about where they imported this orb weaver from. Also apologies for the photo. My phone camera sucks and this is the best I could get.

 

[viper69]

It’s definitely a spiny orb weaver. Type not sure

 

[Scourge]

Where was the import from?

 

[Snapple]

Where was the import from?

While I wont get that information until next week, my research has led me to believe it most likely is G. cancriformis. The closest match is 2 variants found in The Turk and Caicos islands, and the Lesser Antilles. G. cancriformis collected from both those locations only have 4 spines like the one I have. The colour morph examples from the paper I read don't match, but it was mentioned there were other morphs not present in the research paper.

 

[Kada]

Very cool spider, regardless of species. I can't help you out, but a note I have noticed with the Gasteracantha species we have wild here is their colors certainly can vary. Spot sizes from small to large and even banded vs spotted. Doesn't help with you're ID, but I would put a lot of weight on color variation, and focus more other morphological features

How are setting this one up? Always windered how people keep large webbed orb weavers. I see G. kuhli with webs over 5 meters wide. Fairly regularly (tree to tree).

 

[Snapple]

Very cool spider, regardless of species. I can't help you out, but a note I have noticed with the Gasteracantha species we have wild here is their colors certainly can vary. Spot sizes from small to large and even banded vs spotted. Doesn't help with you're ID, but I would put a lot of weight on color variation, and focus more other morphological features

How are setting this one up? Always windered how people keep large webbed orb weavers. I see G. kuhli with webs over 5 meters wide. Fairly regularly (tree to tree).

I had been keeping her in a large modified frame about 12x12, but unfortunately she passed yesterday. It was to be expected though as I've read that females usually die not long after laying their egg sacs. I also deduced that she is indeed a 4 spined morph of G. cancriformis after reading a research paper from april 30th 2020 which had numerous samples of the 4 spined morph. They were exclusive to Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, and the Turks and Caicos islands. I found another source from St-Martine island that had photos of more 4 spined morphs (LesFruitsDuMer.com) as well as a few photographs and specimens present on a museum website from a European country (more Nordic country, can't remember). The only difference is her colour-morph which isn't present in any of the sources I've found. Honestly if I had know she was wild caught I wouldn't have bought her, I feel a little guilty.

I found out another store called Magazoo (which I also frequent often) also has a 4 spined G. cancriformis, which makes me believe they are supplied from the same Montreal importer/vendor. I've had issues with Magazoo's vendor before as I've had to frequently inform the store that the arachnids they are carrying are a different species from what they labelled them as.

Apologies for the long rant, I don't get to talk about the hobby a lot, and this whole ordeal with the orb weaver had me a tad stressed.

Edit: Also wanted to mention that during my research Taiwantrulyhas some of the most beautiful Gasteracantha species I've ever laid my eyes upon

 

[Kada]

That's sad to hear. But you will have babies right? That's a huge plus! Might want to get some tiny annoying flying insect cultures on hand haha.

Jot that it's OK, Hut I imagine a lot of lesser known species in the let teade are rarely screened under a microsecond and cross referenced with journals to make sure the species is right. Even wood and food exports tend to have lumped names, it's a tad shocking to be honest. Mahogany and SPF are common ones. It's a bit of a mess out there.

Taiwan has a few pretty species. G. sauteri is probably the most striking. But places like Malaysia put us to shame on the extreme end of the family haha.