Heteroscodra maculata question

[motorteipidpa]

are h.maculata juvies whitish in color like the adults?im wondering if mine is actually an h.maculata or not because its brownish in color,burrows rather then stays on the fake plants in its enclosure, and dosent look as leggy as the adults i have seen.are the babies supposed to look like the one i have or may i have a totally diffrent species?
a pic of it is attached
thanks
Tom

 

[Tangled WWWeb]

I am far from an OW tarantula expert (I don't currently keep OW species) but I have kept H. maculata in the past and none of mine were that color. Color is not a reliable indicator of species,however, and I can't make out enough of the spider to be sure.

John

 

[MrDeranged]

From what I've seen, not at all. In fact, the juvies of H. maculata and S. calceatum look pretty much alike in my opinion. I believe that the H. mac's get the white coloration as they reach adulthood. Hopefully someone with a little more experience with them will chime in here too.... I've been wondering the same thing as you Tom

Scott

 

[Code Monkey]

I'll let you know in a few years

As best I know, the juves are brownish and get that beautiful ghost white markings as they get larger. My sling is definitely brown and not white at all.

 

[Gail]

Same here - 2 slings I got recently from Kelly Swift are both brownish colored. Can't wait until they show the white coloration. There is, however, a description in the ATS species book that makes me wonder. For Heteroscodra maculata they say this - "The body has an overall reddish or pinkish-tan color. This carapace has some black patterns and a starburst configuration radiating out from the fovea. The abdomen has a black line dorsally running longitudinally across most of it. Other darker spotted areas adorn the sides of the abdomen. The tibiae of leg IV is enlarged compared to the tibiae of the other legs." They say it's common name is "Togo starburst". Their discription sounds absolutly nothing like the picture that was on Kelly's site. Not to pick on the ATS but their discription of the Usumbara seems a bit off as well "The abdomen and legs are a yellow brown with a hint of gray and green, with the long setae a subdued yellow. The legs have white hair at the joints. The black carapace sports a golden starburst pattern radiating out from the fovea." What ever happened to the bright orange that every Usumbara I have seen sports?

Gail

 

[Phillip]

they start out brown...

And then they turn white at about the 2 inch to 2 and 1/2 inch mark. By the time they reach 3 or so inches they look pretty much like adults.
Phil

 

[Vayu Son]

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That could definately be a togo. They are rather brown and drab till the 2" mark or so, at which point some white underlaying the brown should be visible. Mine has alot of white freckles.

-V

 

[Lantang]

doesnt look like it to me......

Doesnt Look like a maculata, look at the legs, the tarsus or matetarsus arent enlarged in the front like an aboreal,looking at her body build she looks like more of a burrower(bigger abdoman)
I dont know the size of it, and theres more with experience then me...

 

[Raveness]

It looks like a P.murinus

 

[pamandron]

We had a sling of the H. Maculata and the sling of the Usambar. What you have doesn't look like our H. Maculata. Ron agrees that it is a P. Murinus. Our H. Maculata is about 1.5 inches and she definetly has the ghost white markings. When we first got her she did burrow as a sling. She still stays hidden. Pam and Ron

 

[motorteipidpa]

yea now that i think about it it does look like the tan form of the usambara,the "mombassa golden starburst".the person that sold it to me said it was a "togo starburst"so i immediately thought it was a h.maculata,but with the word "starburst" in it the guy could of thought it was an h.maculata and obviously i have been for the months ive been keeping it in an arboreal set up,lol.maybe it is a p.murinus after all.the people that said they had baby h.mac's,do your babies look like the one i have in the pic?i guess if it gets any white coloration in the next molt or 2 then my question can have a definite answer.
Tom

 

[Raveness]

It is a Usambara he was mistaken

 

[motorteipidpa]

lol,well now that makes 3 usambaras.well 2 the orange form and now one the tan form.oh well,the more the merrier.
Tom

 

[Raveness]

Are they vicious? lol

 

[motorteipidpa]

i never see mine,the 2 juvies are always hiding,only come out at night, the other hasnt shown any aggression yet,just a small spiderling.
Tom

 

[Code Monkey]

I think the P. murinus, Usambara or not, declarations are way off base. Further, other than Lantang who actually had a *reason* for doubting H. maculata, the rest of you seem to be going on wild speculation under the assumption that it's not. It's a very bad picture where about the only thing visible is the legs and some out of focus markings on the abdomen.

An Usambara juve is going to be *orange*, not brown as he says, the standard P. murinus is going to tan-brown, also rather distinctive. Also, the webbing style of P. murinus is a dead giveaway next to a Togo which, while webby, doesn't seek to fill the entire enclosure with web tubes and tunnels.

While we have one person who has seen white markings on a 1.5" specimen, we have six people who have not seen any white on their small specimens. Of those six, the ones who have raised the sling larger said the markings did not appear until around the 2+" mark. I have an H. maculata, it is brown, it has similar marking to the markings on the abdomen shown as best I can tell from the photo. It's legs don't appear markedly different at this point - I'd get a picture but I only see the bugger for about 6 seconds a day if I'm lucky.

At any rate, is it a Togo? From the picture, I sure couldn't tell you with any certainty. But there is nothing in the picture or his description that is contradictory with a small Togo specimen.

 

[motorteipidpa]

lol yea sorry about the bad pic its a 30$ webcam and my crappy pic taking skills make it worse.yea that is true it hasnt webbed nearly as much as an usamabara does.just webbed up the entrance to its little burrow.i guess ill just have to wait and see.
Tom

 

[pamandron]

If I had a digital camera that worked well, I could show you her picture. She just molted out last week. Ron said our 1.5 ornamental baboon he measured with a real tape measure. So if you had this spider and used the tape measure spider people used it would be 4 inches. He has ordered a lot of those 4 inch spiders that when we got them they were only 2 inches. Pam