is my B. vagans really a B. vagans?

[DaveEmory]

I have a 3.5" female which I have believed to be a B. vagans, but since molting a week ago I am confused - it turned somewhat brownish. Previously, it was jet black with red abdomen, but now it has an overall reddish-brown coloration on the legs. I've raised it from a baby, and it has grown like a weed, from .75" to 3.5" in 5 months.

Here's a photo of it as of now, followed by a photo before the molt.

Comments?


PC

 

[gvfarns]

That is odd and cool lookin'.

The colors on this one don't look far enough from the norm to me that conclude that it's a different species, though.

However, there have been a number of threads lately about vagans identification. Lots of people think the hobby vagans is hybridized and there are several other species (from different genuses) that look almost exactly like B vagans that have probably circulated around and been bred together. Basically none of us is really confident that our hobby B vagans is a real B vagans.

Yours looks great, though. I'd like to have one that looked like that (though mine is real nice looking too).

 

[forrestpengra]

I've heard of B. vagan x B. albo crosses looking this way...

Search it out and see what you come up with. I'm curious. I think its purdy.

 

[Beardo]

Thats an interesting spider, no doubt....what it is for sure, I cannot say myself.

 

[DaveEmory]

I'd be surprised if it was a mix with B. albostriatum, as I see no characteristics of that. But I wonder if there's some angustum in there?

This is the first I've heard of B. vagans not necessarily being purebred. Interesting.


PC

 

[ftorres]

Hello,
I say is a B vagans and perhaps the carapace will turn darker with time.

Link

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=170160

Please read post #7

 

[Avicularia Man]

I'LL TELL YOU WHAT IT IS.......I'LL TELL YOU WHAT IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...............It's one pretty spider. That's what it is. ;P:worship:

 

[mozkaynak]

My B. vagans is exactly same as the T on the pictures. I think when they are all hybrid.

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

I've heard of B. vagan x B. albo crosses looking this way...

Search it out and see what you come up with. I'm curious. I think its purdy.

That was my first thought.

 

[Exo]

I trhink almost all the vagans in the hobby are probably hybrids, and that's exactly why I won't buy one. (but yours is a very nice looking hybrid though )

 

[ftorres]

I trhink almost all the vagans in the hobby are probably hybrids, and that's exactly why I won't buy one. (but yours is a very nice looking hybrid though )

So Exo what do you think they are hybridize with?

 

[Exo]

So Exo what do you think they are hybridize with?

Probably B.albo, we know for a fact that people have done it many times. I wouldn't be surpised if there were other Brachys that were mixed with vegans either.

 

[mickey66]

B.Vagans

I got this Vagans at about 1" and now is close to 3" in 7 months or so and has always looked this way.....was sold to me as a B.vagans by a well known dealer.

 

[DaveEmory]

And yours has a very black carapace... whereas my "vagans" has a reddish carapace, and has since about 1.5". In some pictures I've seen, mine resembles a B. sabulosum; but in other pictures, it matches what is described as a B. vagans.

:?


PC

 

[mickey66]

B.Vagans

I think one should not rule out the possibility of variants and also hybrids. "Like most tarantulas, the biology of B. vagans is poorly known (Carter 1997). Adult females are 5.0 to 7.5 cm in body length, with a leg span up to 13.5 cm. Adult males are slightly shorter with a much smaller abdomen. The spiders are entirely black except for the long red to reddish-brown hairs on the dorsum of the abdomen; females also have reddish-brown hairs on legs VIII and IV (Baxter 1993). It is a fossorial species (i.e., it digs burrows); adult burrows are 4 to 5 cm in diameter and about 45 cm deep."

 

[jayefbe]

Hello,
I say is a B vagans and perhaps the carapace will turn darker with time.

Link

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=170160

Please read post #7

I read the exact opposite, where vagans DO have red setae on legs iii and iv, while other species do not. I'm not sure which side is right (I believe the guy I heard it from, he actually cited a taxonomic key) so wouldn't say that is a decisive trait.