Is Hapalopus sp. Columbia Large communal?

korg

Arachnobaron
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Always very interesting to get reports directly from the natural habitat, as they do so often have the potential to clue us in on things we'd never know from the captive populations. I don't necessarily agree with the logical jump from "I saw a lot of these in the same small area" to "this is a communal species," but if anyone's waiting on a sac it sounds like it might be worth testing their tolerance a bit.
 

Xafron

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Apr 5, 2017
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I'd love to attempt a communal set up someday. If these guys can tolerate that, it would be awesome as I came very close to buying one.
 

KezyGLA

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I wouldnt be so sure. There are species that live in close quarters and encounter each other quite regularly. This stated as colonies. But they still develope their own burrow/hide elsewhere but nearby. This doesnt mean they will be suited to communal living in captivity.

Take Chaetopelma, Dolichothele, Neoholothele, Holothele and Heterothele for example. These live in 'Colonies' in the wild but arent right on top of each other for most of the time. Cannibalism usually happens when keeping these so in captivity.
 

Jason B

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I would love a communal of this species, because I love their colors and their prey response, its that same prey response that would make me very hesitant to try an actual communal setup of this species. I feel like if one grew slower then the rest, you'd be short atleast one T.
 

viper69

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I just read a post where a guy describes seeing a Hapalopus sp. that looks similar to Columbia Large in a communal setting at a national park. Can anyone confirm or deny this behaviour?
Here's the link:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFK-DNygE8z/
I'm unaware of any reports on that.

On its face, I find the lack of images a compelling reason not to believe what I read. In the age of social media, people will write anything to get attention.

A single pick of that locality, of a single specimen, oh exciting.....:rolleyes:
 

Tanner Dzula

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I'm unaware of any reports on that.

On its face, I find the lack of images a compelling reason not to believe what I read. In the age of social media, people will write anything to get attention.

A single pick of that locality, of a single specimen, oh exciting.....:rolleyes:
agreed that this is a good indication.
any other reported communal species(M. Balfouri, H. Villosella, ETC) all have multiple images and reports, of both Captive communal and even Communities of them in the wild.
 

Arachnomaniac19

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agreed that this is a good indication.
any other reported communal species(M. Balfouri, H. Villosella, ETC) all have multiple images and reports, of both Captive communal and even Communities of them in the wild.
All of those species are described, leading me to believe that they're more common in their natural habitat and therefor we know more about them.
 

BobBarley

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All of those species are described, leading me to believe that they're more common in their natural habitat and therefor we know more about them.
I wouldn't say this is necessarily true. Tarantulas are very under-studied in general. Many of the described species are extremely poorly described and many are probably not even valid. And if you read through the papers where these tarantulas are described, very little (in most cases, nothing) is said about its life in the wild, its habitat, etc. Being described or undescribed doesn't indicate whether we know more about their behavior or not.
However, I would say that we generally know more of the behaviors and tendencies of species that are more prominent in the hobby.
 

cold blood

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I don't necessarily agree with the logical jump from "I saw a lot of these in the same small area" to "this is a communal species
Especially species that have adult color as very small slings.
 

Arachnomaniac19

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I wouldn't say this is necessarily true. Tarantulas are very under-studied in general. Many of the described species are extremely poorly described and many are probably not even valid. And if you read through the papers where these tarantulas are described, very little (in most cases, nothing) is said about its life in the wild, its habitat, etc. Being described or undescribed doesn't indicate whether we know more about their behavior or not.
However, I would say that we generally know more of the behaviors and tendencies of species that are more prominent in the hobby.
I get what you're saying and agree with it, but if some unusual behaviour is discovered with a spider species I'd assume it would be included in the paper describing them. Granted I haven't read any of the papers describing known communal Ts, but I'd assume that it would be mentioned if it were observed. The only exception would be if the Ts were museum specimens without any notes, which I think is pretty common when looking back at people like Pocock and whatnot.
 

KezyGLA

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Even Heterothele arent very easy to keep in a commune. They dont last long. They need a lot of space to make it work, even wih such a small species. I think the only species in the hobby known(to date) to live basically on top of and breed with each other without issue are M. balfouri and M. lambertoni.
 

viper69

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All of those species are described, leading me to believe that they're more common in their natural habitat and therefor we know more about them.


Have found some literature after the help myself and AphonopelmaTX provided you a day ago but you didn't bother to say thanks for here, http://arachnoboards.com/threads/scientific-articles-we-should-all-read.294327/#post-2631335 :D

Have you read primary literature on M. balfouri being communal in the wild?? IF so, please pass it on as we would all like to see it here. :cool:
 
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Arachnomaniac19

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Have found some literature after the help myself and AphonopelmaTX provided you a day ago but you didn't bother to say thanks for here, http://arachnoboards.com/threads/scientific-articles-we-should-all-read.294327/#post-2631335 :D

Have you read primary literature on M. balfouri being communal in the wild?? IF so, please pass it on as we would all like to see it here. :cool:
Again, I'm not wanting to get into anything with you. I felt like an informative rating was good enough, until you started acting rude. As I said above, I haven't read any papers on communal Ts.
 
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