God I Love my Job!

[LeilaNami]

Good Lord.

You guys know what this place is, right? The Internet's LARGEST, MOST DIVERSE source of information on the husbandry, breeding, and hobby of terrestrial invertebrate animals? You know what a place like that should do, right? Produce/broadcast CORRECT information when possible, and where there is error, CORRECT THE MISINFORMATION.

I can't believe I have to explain this.

@ Rusty - You can't use that language here. He wasn't being a "jerk", anyway... it sounds to me like you're a little bit pissed that you don't have the Death Spider From Hell that you thought, and he was only trying to help. His location says "Colombia" ... you know, South America? You're aware that the entire globe doesn't speak perfect American English right? Give people a break before you go off half-cocked. He was trying to correct obviously incorrect information that was flying around, and that's not really something you're allowed to take offense to on an INFORMATION board. Enjoy your spider... move on.

@ Leila - Basically the middle part of what I said to Rusty

@ Ricardo - Some people here are very delicate... you have to be "too nice" sometimes or else people get their feelings hurt. As you may be aware by now, this means that *I* cause "hurt feelings" on a fairly regular basis. Your tone and information was fine. You can't keep people from "trying" to do something... it's everyone's God-given right to throw out random ID's from Google Images!

Everyone needs to just chill the heck out. Stop nursing "hurt feelings" for a second and stop to think... maybe your input really ISN'T that helpful. I know a TON about bugs, and I wouldn't DREAM of chiming in on a thread like this. Why? Because my post would be nothing more than a half-baked guess based off a non-scientific comparison to some random, probably mis-identified anyway, photo off of the Internet somewhere. Input from someone who knows what they're talking about is generally much more helpful than that.

I'm not saying don't "try" ... I'm saying that if your'e going to try, you have to be ready to fail. And when you fail, be ready to be corrected. I know we're all supposed to be beautiful unique snowflakes, and everyone's opinion is supposed to be equally valid, but that's dead wrong, and that WILL NOT make AB the best place to find CORRECT information for years to come.

Thanks for listening... you may continue.

-MrI

I am not angry that I was wrong. I am not angry that I was corrected. It was the way I was corrected. You can have as much information in your head as a thousand books but if you don't even try to put it into practice, how do you know if you're doing it correctly? I have no problem being told I had my ID wrong but yes, he was being condescending to a newer true spider hobbyists and that is where I get irritated. If someone IDs a spider the wrong way how about posting something useful to explain HOW to ID the species instead of telling them not to even try? How can you even thing that would be appropriate? We are all here on this board to learn but how would it appear to you if a senior hobbyist told you not to bother?
Ricardo you didn't "hurt my feelings" as Mr. Internet here assumes but it did make me stop and think if I should just learn on my own about these spiders rather than getting information from someone with experience on this board. I had been lurking around on this board for a while although I started with the Theriphosidae boards. I'm still learning and truth be told there's a lot of information accurate and not on how to ID these spiders and I'm trying to separate the crap from the gold. There's really no way for me to find out if I'm doing this correctly until I try. Obviously I was going the wrong direction but I was irked from your response. I clearly stated in the beginning that my ID was in no way 100% sure and in fact if you read I was also asking questions when the first comment arose that I was incorrect. And also Mr. Internet once I again I'll state that I used a true spider catalog that led me to that image. It was not a random image found under the simple search of Phoneutria.

EDIT: Ricardo I pretty much just wanted to make it known to you that I was in no way "hurt" by your correction. Mr. Internet completely missed the point of my responses. I have no problem being corrected but I would have appreciated maybe something useful I could use so I could learn. I was obviously heading in the wrong direction but there is a lot of conflicting information even on this board. I made it clear in the beginning my ID was no where near 100%. How can I possibly learn if the only responses to these ID threads are "yep that's blah blah blah". Ok? How did you get that ID? What features are you looking at? I want to know that but I don't get anywhere if I don't start trying to put what I learn into practice. That was all I was trying to say though I admit I came off a bit sensitive I guess.

 

[Craig]

Hey! Why not call your local museum and see if they have a taxonomic key for Phoneutria? Or see if you can find one in a univeristy library.

I do not really know too much about this genus as far as ID goes but this seems like the logical thing to do.

 

[dtknow]

errr...are cupennius less to worry about than Huntsman?

We saw oodles of them in Costa Rica. Of course our guide mentioned they could kill you with one bite.

 

[jsloan]

Hey! Why not call your local museum and see if they have a taxonomic key for Phoneutria?

The spider is more likely Cupiennius than Phoneutria. There is a key to many species of Cupiennius in the appendix to Barth's book: A Spider's World - Senses and Behavior.

Also, look in the bibliography of Platnick for papers on these spiders (using the name of the author listed next to one of the species names from the species list). You might track down some keys there.

For example, here's the Platnick page for Ctenidae:

http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/CTENIDAE.html

Scroll down that page to the genus Cupiennius, and look at C. foliatus (that's a species I've chosen at random). There is a list there of past species names used for that spider, and next to each species name is the name of an author and the year when that author wrote a paper using that name. The list, from top to bottom, goes from earliest to latest. At the bottom of the list you'll see "Barth & Cordes, 1998". That means that the authors, Barth and Cordes, published a paper in 1998 that mentions this spider by that particular species name (sometimes, if you're looking for identification keys, the earlier papers are the place to start looking, since a key or a precise description of the spider is usually given by the person who originally described it - but, not always: it's a good idea to check out more than one paper, or descriptions by other authors - later papers sometimes improve on the original description, offering additional information or a regrouping or re-arrangement of the genus).

To find out what the paper was about go to the Platnick bibliography page:

http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/BIB8A.html

Look under "Barth & Cordes, 1998" to see the title of that paper (make sure you're looking at papers from 1998). It turns out to be:

"Cupiennius remedius new species (Araneae, Ctenidae), and a key for the genus. J. Arachnol. 26: 133-141."

Okay, so that paper was published in 1998 in the Journal of Arachnology, Volume 26, pages 133-141. Notice that the paper includes a key for the genus. (got lucky on my first try!). You'll probably want to look at it.

Fortunately, most articles from the Journal of Arachnology are available online for free downloads. Here's the particular page that includes that article:

http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_tocs/JOA_contents_v26n2.html

It's the second article down on the page, as a .pdf file. 1 MB

Platnick is very useful in this way for tracking down papers/keys on specific spiders. Youll have to do some detective work, and not all papers are available for free downloads, but you might turn up something useful.

You can do this for vitually any spider you're interested in.

Hope this helps.

 

[MaartenSFS]

We do carry trap-door, we currently have 1 on hand, im not sure which one though, red banded i believe. come check it out, im on my way in right now.



yeah but ur Theraphosids wont bite you and put u in the hospital, although this isnt a Brazilian Wandering Spider, it is still HIGHLY venomous and will deliver a very sever potentially harmful bite.

Sorry I'm late. I'm busy planning for a police examination. May I ask the price of the trap-door? I can't afford much right now, but I'm very keen on owning one in the near future. Do you expect to get any true spiders in this year?

In China I caught red-back spiders and giant centipedes and tried to photograph a cobra and other venomous snakes (Which are MUCH quicker and more intelligent than spiders) in the jungle and I think that, if respected, they aren't that bad. Just be very aware of what they are capable and of your own actions when in their pressence. No worries. Enjoy.

 

[LeilaNami]

Thank you for the PM Ricardo. I'm publicly apologizing for calling you a jerk. :8o

jsloan, those links help a lot. Thanks for posting them.