H. mac. r u sure its arboreal?

[thumpersalley]

I have a 4 inch H. mac. Seems to thinks shes a terrestrial T. She can climb & is very fast so whats up with her digging a burrow in the substrate & webbing up? Kim

 

[ZergFront]

I have a P.irminia that's digging a burrow. She's only about 1.5" so I'll get back to you when she's 4."

Individual tarantulas aren't always the same.

 

[Mack&Cass]

I think H. macs are a lot like OBTs in the sense that they're both arboreal and terrestrial. Our H. mac made a burrow in his substrate, and then webbed up to the top and he really only comes out at night and when we throw food in. P. irminia are a lot like that too, like Zerg said.

Cass

 

[Teal]

My H. macs are still slings, so they don't count... but both have made "dirt webs" and web tunnels that extend up into them.. so the division between substrate and tube webs is pretty much nonexistent, and they spend equal time both down on the bottom, and up on the sides.

 

[thumpersalley]

I have an irminia too & shes always been terrestrial & Ive read they can be but the H. mac? I havent seen any threads saying they can be terrestrial. Now Im trying to decide whether to leave her in her arboreal enclosure or change to a terrestrial. Kim

 

[scottyk]

My experience has been that H. macs of all sizes will stay 'semi arboreal" while P. irminia (and other Psalmopoeus species) will get more purely arboreal as they grow larger....

 

[Zoltan]

In their natural habitat, they have been observed to lead an exclusively arboreal lifestyle (AFAIK). I'm also sure that if you'd provide them with a kind of "setup" that they have in Africa, they would do the same.

 

[jbm150]

When I had mine, I noticed that yeah, when she was small, 3-4 inches, she would try to dig underground. Well, she'd have a burrow behind bark that traveled under the substrate. But when she came out, her feet would almost never touch the ground. She'd be up on the glass, on her bark, or in her plant.

 

[Steve Calceatum]

Terrestrial tendencies are part and parcel of OW arboreals. Though Psalmos are technically NW, they have nearly identical behaviors. Both of my Psalmos, my Pokie, H. mac, and S. cal have burrows that extend upwards into complex web retreats.

Despite these tendencies, I still keep them in arboreal setups as they will grow out of these tendencies. However, they aren't tree-dwellers like Avics, and will still make their retreat near ground.