Hickmania troglodytes in captivity?

[l4nsky]

Title kind of says it all. Being a native Australian species, I doubt they've ever really made it outside the country legally, to zoos or private collections. I'm more curious about if they can/are being kept by Australian citizens or if any zoos are working with them in Tasmania or on the mainland. They're just absolutely fascinating to me, a 7" DLS araneomorph that can live several decades, has an eggsack incubation time of 8 ish months, and is a living fossil from something like 180 million years ago.

 

[Edan bandoot]

if they've been around that long, they've ought to be pretty hardy. Rezonant or Austin would probably be your best bet for keepers info, they seem to have their hand in everything over there.

 

[l4nsky]

@RezonantVoid

 

[RezonantVoid]

if they've been around that long, they've ought to be pretty hardy. Rezonant or Austin would probably be your best bet for keepers info, they seem to have their hand in everything over there.

Unfortunately, it's illegal to bring Tassie stuff across to the mainland or Vice Versa, and I'm not aware of any Tasmania based hobbyists. Cave fauna is often very hard to successfully keep as they are used to fairly constant environmental conditions, I don't think anybody will be keeping our recently discovered cave wishbones (Troglodiplura) either for quite some time

@RezonantVoid

I will have a look around online and see if I can find any records of them being kept in captivity, by either hobbyists or researchers

 

[l4nsky]

Unfortunately, it's illegal to bring Tassie stuff across to the mainland or Vice Versa, and I'm not aware of any Tasmania based hobbyists. Cave fauna is often very hard to successfully keep as they are used to fairly constant environmental conditions, I don't think anybody will be keeping our recently discovered cave wishbones (Troglodiplura) either for quite some time


I will have a look around online and see if I can find any records of them being kept in captivity, by either hobbyists or researchers

That makes sense from a biodiversity perspective that Tasmania would legally be kept isolated. Fortunately, H. troglodytes is a cave dweller, but not a cave specialist. While it prefers the mouths of caves, it can and has been found in the surrounding forests and other areas. I have seen pictures and mentions of captivity in some research papers, but nothing from a hobbyist perspective. Let me know if you find anything in your search. I think the biggest challenge to keeping them would be temperature control and enclosure size. I imagine that a large deep freeze would have to be converted over to an enclosure to both keep a constant 50-60°F and give them space to construct their large, horizontal sheet webs.

 

[RezonantVoid]

So far, all I've been able to find is as you say, brief mentions of them in captivity in research facilities and I think 1 mention of a specimen laying an egg sack in one such place. However, I can't find any mention of them being kept by hobbyists. I think the majority probably occur in regions surrounded by national parks, which might make it impossible for them to be collected by citizen scientists.

At 18cm across with 1m or larger webs, they would need a truly enormous and specialised enclosure to comfortably house long term. Temperature regulation would probably need to be quite strict too, as they don't look particularly suited to large temperature fluctuations.

 

[Arthroverts]

If they truly are not cave specialists however I reckon temperature may not be as big a factor in keeping them healthy as many would suppose. Only true troglobites seem to have such specific needs.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[l4nsky]

If they truly are not cave specialists however I reckon temperature may not be as big a factor in keeping them healthy as many would suppose. Only true troglobites seem to have such specific needs.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

Possibly, but the average high temp for Tasmania itself is less than 75°F on the surface and these seem to prefer the cooler habitats like cave mouths, under bridges, etc.

 

[Arthroverts]

Possibly, but the average high temp for Tasmania itself is less than 75°F on the surface and these seem to prefer the cooler habitats like cave mouths, under bridges, etc.

Good point, though even in such a case, compared to most true troglobites, they seem to be more temperature "hardy". I imagine one could probably keep them similarly to New Zealand velvet worms in terms of temperature.

Thanks,

Arthroverts