Help Identify this spider please!

[Bjorgly]

Hi again, one of my friends has another not-easily identified tarantula and i turn to all of you again for advice... Here is what he wrote and here is the pictures he sent:

She's very lanky about 5 inches, her cerapache is not domed (flat) , and she's kind of primitive looking. Her abdomen is fairly small, and she tends to hang out by the water dish all of the time even though we water the cage a lot.
She's very/fairly mellow, even though I pissed her off one day with a piece of white paper (defensive rearing up with fangs). The funny part was I took a drumstick, went around back of her (behind her cerapache), and gently pushed her back down to the above position. LOL. She didn't want a fight and she went back to hanging out by the water dish. Anyway, you were helpful in the past and I thought of you again as I am not really certain if she's Pamphobeteus or not.

 

[Bjorgly]

One more

 

[invertepet]

Looks like a somewhat skinny T. blondi/apophysis, or possibly M. velvetosoma.

bill

 

[Lantang]

Looks like a blondi, or if lucky an apophysis(agreeing with bill above)

 

[LD50]

That Looks like a T. Blondi

 

[Brandon]

Im going with T blondi

Sincerely,

Brandon

 

[Cronoss]

or possibly M. velvetosoma.

bill [/B][/QUOTE]

It's not M.veletosoma

 

[Charlie]

I think I would go with T Blondi as well.

Even though it seems to me a little scrawny for a T blondi I would have to say thats what it is. It sure looks like a T Blondi to me anyway.

-Charlie

 

[Joy]

Can you get a picture of the chelicerae head-on? T. blondi is very distinctive in this regard, with kind of a bald, shiny band edging the carapace.

Joy

 

[Arachnopuppy]

Yup, its a T. blondi. It may be that the tarantula is about to molt which is why it is hanging around the water dish a lot.

 

[Steve Nunn]

Originally posted by Joy
Can you get a picture of the chelicerae head-on? T. blondi is very distinctive in this regard, with kind of a bald, shiny band edging the carapace.

Joy

Hi,
It's gonna be a T.blondi, but to Joy I'm curious as to the differences between T.blondi and T.apophysis. Does T. apophysis not have this band?

Could this person be so lucky??

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Tangled WWWeb]

I don't think it's an apophysis because the femurs on every 5" to 6" T. apophysis I've ever seen were not as thick in relation to the rest of the spider. Here is a pic of my female T. apophysis when at roughly 6.5" to 7".

 

[Tangled WWWeb]

This is a pic of one of my T. blondi females. She is maybe an inch larger than the T. apophysis pictured above. Her femurs are thick like the spider in the original post. IMO T. blondis appear more heavy bodied than T. apophysis. I won't say for certain , but my guess would be T. blondi.

 

[Joy]

Re: Re: Help identify this spider please!

Originally posted by Steve Nunn
Hi,
It's gonna be a T.blondi, but to Joy I'm curious as to the differences between T.blondi and T.apophysis. Does T. apophysis not have this band?

Could this person be so lucky??

Thanks,
Steve

Steve, that's an excellent question. I have never gotten around to examining my apophysis that closely, but I have known for some time that such an event was inevitable. The next chance I get, I will take that sucker out and do some macro on the cheliceral area. First, however, I will lay in an ample supply of Benadryl

Joy

 

[Steve Nunn]

Sorry to bring up a relatively old thread, but, I talked to Rick West about the morphological differences between T.blondi and T.apophysis and this is what he had to say:

<<The differences in morphology of both sexes is subtle but distinct.
Male apophysis do have tibial spurs ... but they're vestigal. The color between
species is distinct ... apophysis has a maroon hue on very dark brown, blondi
is uniformly medium brown to fawn brown with no other hues. Geographical
ranges are distinct - Guyana Shield vs. non-Guyana Shield. The offsprings of
apophysis have white 'booties', blondi offspring don't. There's much more leg
spination on apophysis in comparison to blondi. Carapace shape is distinct,
blondi is perfectly round, apophysis is not perfectly round. Blondi is heavier in
leg diameter and 'chunkier' (non-scientific term) in overall body, whereas,
apophysis is larger in legspan but not in body mass ... some people debate
this as they 'grow giants in the hobby but this is unnatural in the wild state.>>

I thought this may be helpfull, considering the shop may have a T.apophysis that they don't know about?? Otherwise to buy one is an expensive task.

Cheers,
Steve