User Josh's Frogs Picture Thread

[Joshs Frogs]

Everybody loves a blue spider!! One of the most famous and desirable of the many blue tarantulas is the Gooty Sapphire Ornamental Tarantula (Peocilotheria metallica). This spider is always breathtaking to behold. High contrast blacks and whites blend perfectly into the iridescent blues and canary yellow. This is not a subtle spider. When it first hit popularity in the US, almost 20 years ago, ¾” spiderlings were selling for $250!! That was if you could even find one to buy. Luckily, since then, enough people have bred enough of these spiders for the price to become much more reasonable. This is not a spider for the beginner. It is intolerant of conditions other than those similar to its southeast Asian rainforests. While no tarantula has venom that has ever killed a human, this tarantula has medically significant venom and could probably wreck your whole week. Even so, with proper care and caution, these amazing tarantulas make incredible display animals.


Meet Betty White Knee! Betty is a Brazilian Giant White Knee Tarantula, Acanthoscurria geniculata. Her kind comes from the Amazon basin of northern Brazil. Her species was first described by Anton Ausserer in 1871, but were not popular in the Tarantula Keeping Hobby until around 25 years ago. The genus name, “Acanthoscurria” comes from Greek words meaning "spine" and "to run". This reflects the spiny appearance and agile movements of these tarantulas. The word geniculata comes from the Latin word geniculum, which is a diminutive of genu meaning "knee". Geniculata means "on bended knee". This reflects both the typical stance of this tarantula as well as the bright white epaulettes on the “knees”, also known as the patellas. Betty is generally a very tolerant and confident tarantula, often seen out and about in her habitat. We expect to have her for quite some time to come, due to her 20+ year life spam! We will keep you updated on Betty as she grows, molts, or breeds again.

 

[Joshs Frogs]

Meet Esqueleta, The True Skeleton Tarantula (Ephebopus murinus)! Her kind come from the humid forests of northern Brazil, French Guiana, and Suriname. There, they live in intricate, multi pronged underground silk lined tunnels. They are well adapted to tunnel life. It shows in their anatomy. True Skeleton Tarantulas have bulky, extra strong number 1 and 2 leg pairs oriented towards their front. These are great for capturing and overpowering prey, at the mouth of their burrow. Their numbers 3 and 4 leg pairs are oriented to the side and the rear, respectively. This allows the spider to grip the sides of the tunnel to support the tarantula on those two pair while they use their first two pair for prey. This allows them to hoist up their prey and drag them down into their burrow to consume. They have urticating hairs, like most New World Tarantulas. Theirs is more highly adapted to tunnel life as they also have them on their pedipalps. They can throw urticating hairs at a threat they are facing, while they defend their burrow. True Skeleton Tarantulas get their name for their gorgeous high contrast jet black base color on their legs with bright white “boning” stripes going down the center of their length. These hole dwellers are rarely seen on the surface of their habitat. That is why it seams so special when you actually do see them out, like I did with Miss Esqueleta on the day I took these photos. I hope you find her as beautiful as I do.

What’s in a name? The Goliath Pink Toe is much more commonly known in the tarantula keeping hobby as Avicularia braunshauseni, although it may have been recently reclassified as Avicularia avicularia morphotype 2. It may be one of the hardest of the Pink Toe names to pronounce, but there is no doubt that they are one of the prettiest!! As you can see here, these Brazilian beauties sport a metallic teal carapace and metallic blue legs with long frizzy, “hairs” (setae) all along them. These legs are tipped with pink tips to their “toes” (tarsi). They have dark black abdomens with crimson red racing stripes on either side. All together, this is one breathtaking tarantula to behold in person. Not the least because females can attain a whopping eight inch leg span (although some think this is exaggerated)!!

 

[jennywallace]

Just seen this thread for the first time and love it, well done and please keep them coming

 

[Joshs Frogs]

Thanks! Your positive feedback really means a lot to me!

 

[Joshs Frogs]

Colombian Giant Red Leg (Megaphobema robustum) There are few tarantulas that are both as beautiful and as dramatic as the Colombian Giant Red Leg Tarantula! They are known for their exaggerated movements as they spread their legs to maximum width and raise their butts straight up in the air. They will do this to intimidate you if you try to give them food. They will do it when you give them water or remove boluses from their habitat. Heaven forbid you move their hide log! Absolute tarantula tantrum! An adult female may reach a legspan of up to eight inches, so her moods are not to be taken lightly. You can see why people keep them, anyways, though. Those electric crimson legs and that bright ring around their carapace are just so pretty!


Purple Earth Tiger (Phormingochilus hatihati) The species epithet, “hatihati" comes from Indonesian and translates to "be careful". This name is a warning about the spider's bite and the caution required when dealing with it. This species is known to become defensive quite easily. Immediately after snapping this picture, this individual raised up her front legs to invite me to be anywhere in the entire world except right there. I decided to take her up on her offer after I gave her a couple of crickets, respected her wishes, and DID NOT test her boundaries!!

 

[Requiem4aSpleen]

I love my aureotibialis. Very elusive but I see mine when I sneak up on them. Do you keep yours in sterilites?

 

[Joshs Frogs]

@Requiem4aSpleen I keep them in Sterilites in heated racks when they mature. I keep them in a variety of smaller terrestrially oriented habitats before that.


Cuban Bronze Tarantula (Phormictopus auratus) This is one well named tarantula! When it is still young, like this individual, they have a greenish bronze carapace. Their legs and abdomen are dark, with long, reddish gold hairs interspersed. This gives them a shaggy look. By the time females are full size, their abdomens are black. The base color of their legs is black. Their carapace and those long, shaggy hairs become brilliant golden. When this girl grows into her full, potentially eight inch size, she is going to be quite a breathtaking tarantula!

Meet Bagheera, the Brazilian Blue Tarantula (Lasiocyano sazimai)! When I checked in on his habitat and saw a fresh molt had been thrown out of his burrow, I knew that his shiny new exoskeleton was going to be amazing. Like the famous black panther from Rudyard Kipling's “Jungle Book”, our Bagheera is a shiny blue-black. I love the way tarantulas look once they have hardened up (sclerotized) after a shed!

 

[Joshs Frogs]

Meet Sith Lord, the Darth Maul Tarantula, Psalmopoeus victori. As this tarantula approaches maturity, she will be a more uniform black in the front and red on the back half of her body. Right now, at this stage in her development, she is also showing off some shiny, metallic greens on her carapace and abdomen. As a member of a species with an infamously short temper, I have to snap pictures of her quickly, before she either rises up in threat pose or bolts into her hiding space. But, I would say that her beauty commands as much respect as her attitude does!

Finally, a “purple” tarantula that lives up to its name! There are quite a few tarantulas that have purple in its name that don’t seem to live up to the word. Tarantulas such as the Violet Tree Spider or the Purple Earth Tiger may have a purple sheen when seen in the right light, but not enough to justify the name. This Ecuadorian Purple Pink Toe Tarantula, like most of its close relatives, was born with pink legs and black “toes”. She is actually just starting to show the profuse, metallic purple that will cover this entire spider, except for the famous pink “toes”. Even now, she is stunning! We will keep you updated with new pictures as she grows and develops into the purple rock star that she will one day be!

 

[Joshs Frogs]

The itsy bitsy spider!! Different species of tarantulas start out as spiderlings at various sizes. In general, species that have a greater number of eggs have smaller spiderlings. Species like the Salmon Pink Bird Eater and the Brazilian Red and White can have upwards of 2,000 eggs, but they start out as small as BBs! Also, smaller species have smaller spiderlings. Here we have a Brazilian Dwarf Pink Leg Tarantula (dwarf species), a Mexican Giant Orange Knee (250+ babies), Golden Blue Leg Baboon (smaller species), and Venezuelan Dwarf Beauty (dwarf species). We feed these spiders our smaller species of flightless fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). They may be tiny now, but what these species look like when they grow up make it worth it to grow your own itsy bitsy spider!

 

[Joshs Frogs]

Sexual Dimorphism in Tarantulas. Sexual Dimorphism is when the different sexes of a species are shaped and colored differently. In tarantulas, this tends not to be apparent until they mature. Immature tarantulas can be infamously difficult to determine their sex. Once they mature, and their body changes occur, it is much easier to tell at a glance. Here we have a male and a female Socotra Island Blue Baboon Tarantula (Monocentropus balfouri). Besides physical differences like the long, spindly legs, the tibial hooks (not all species have these), and the emboli at then end of their pedipalps become easily evident on a mature male. The females will grow much larger and robust. In this species, there is also a color difference. Females tend to have a light teal carapace. Males, meanwhile, will begin to develop a much darker blue carapace several molts before they mature. By the time that they mature, their carapace and legs will have turned a deep cobalt blue. Either way, these are both gorgeous spiders!

 

[Smotzer]

We feed these spiders our smaller species of flightless fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster)

Little tidbit but you’d be better off feeding your young slings something other than D. melanogaster, such as pinhead roaches/crickets, or cut pieces of mealworms. Fruit flies are fairly nutrient deficient. You’d save time too as those are really inefficient prey to offer.

 

[Joshs Frogs]

Put the eggs in the sack, please. Just how do tarantulas make their egg sacs? I was lucky enough to catch this Honduran Curly Hair in the act. When a tarantula is ready to lay her eggs, she first lays down a silken mat, many layers thick. She then mixes the male’s genetic material (stored in the spermatheca) with her eggs as she expels them from her abdomen, onto the center of the silken mat. She then draws the edges together, like a hobo’s knapsack. This forms into a rough ball shape. The female tarantula will carry her egg sac around with her and turn it, periodically, to keep the eggs on the bottom from having too much pressure on them. The more she turns her egg sac, the more perfectly spherical it will become. Thirty to sixty days later, her babies will emerge, ready to fend for themselves. Very shortly after that, her babies will scatter to the four winds. She abandons all maternal responsibilities and, for the most part never sees them again.

 

[Joshs Frogs]

Meet Naranja. She is an adult female Giant Mexican Orange Knee Tarantula (Brachypelma smithi) that lives in the Arachnid Division of Josh’s Frogs. She is a stunning example of her kind. When she was younger, her carapace was black, ringed in bright reddish orange. As she matured, most of that carapace filled in with that bright orange, leaving a black triangle over her ocular mound (eye area) that looks like a missing slice of pie. I saw her sitting out, sporting all that color, and I had to snap pics while I could. She apparently did not appreciate the paparazzi and went back into her hide, but not before I got a couple of great pics!

 

[Joshs Frogs]

When arboreal tarantulas pair for breeding, the male comes up from below and lifts the female up to access her epigastric furrow. When Pink Toe species do this, like these Metallic Pink Toes (Avicularia avicularia Morphotype 6), the female will just absolutely drape more than half of her body across the male that is trying to hold her up. This always made me think of Ballet Dancers when the male dancer lifts the female up over his head!

 

[Joshs Frogs]

Trinidad Olive Tarantulas (Neoholothele incei) are a tarantula species with some uncommon qualities. Two qualities that you do not often see in tarantulas are 1) being shades of green and 2)being able to live with their own kind. While it is most prominent when it is a spiderling, Trinidad Olives maintain an emerald sheen throughout their lives. Here you can see a picture of one as a spiderling and another as a mature female. They also come in a gold form. Trinidad Olive Tarantulas have been successfully kept in colonies of 20+ spiders, all living together. One should be cautious when attempting to keep even communal tarantulas together. There are some species that tend to coexist peacefully, as long as nothing goes wrong. However, if anything does go wrong, the results are usually fatal.