Liphistius murphyorum

[belewfripp]

I've recently acquired one of these and although I found a little info on care for L. desultor I'm still a bit unsure of some things, if anyone has had experience that would be most helpful.

Basically, right now she (he said, hoping) is on a sloped substrate of peat with some detritus like gravel and whatnot mixed in. The substrate varies from an inch to 6 inches deep, depending on the section of slope. Under the peat is a bed of gravel with water added to them, which hopefully will leech upward and keep things humid.

The thing that concerns me is that she is very skinny. I'm really not familiar with these guys the way I am tarantulas - I know a skinny or fat T when I see one, but not much frame of reference here. Unfortunately I can't provide a photo as my digital camera is MIA. The abdomen's about half as wide as the prosoma, and half as long. She seems very healthy, stays mostly in one spot, but if prodded she moves like a shot.

I have a very different type of trapdoor (a Ctenizid) that spent about a week sitting in one corner after I excavated her (from a roadbank in TN) before starting in on a burrow so I'm going to assume it may take this liphistid an acclimation period as well.

If anyone has any tips for these guys, please let me know.

 

[beetleman]

i have 1 aswell, and other traps,funnelwebs,your setup sounds great,yeah sometimes they take alittle time to make their tunnels,burrows,mine looks just like yours with the abdomen being alittle small also,but with alittle feeding it will fill out,imports are always in those shapes. hope this helps ya.

 

[belewfripp]

Thank you, that does help. How big is yours? Mine is about 1 and a half inches in legspan, but I've heard some other species can reach 4-5 inches. I've only got the two trapdoors, but I'm hoping to get outside and do some more local hunting/excavating. I hope some more liphistids make it into the market, and more non-tarantula mygalomorphs, they are very interesting animals (if much less visible).

 

[beetleman]

about the same size as yours,yeah i love these primitive spiders,that segmented abdomen really cool,they are supposed to get good size,i would love to see a real monster of these guys:worship:

 

[Bigboy]

Those are the segmented trapdoors from Malaysia right? That genus has no venom correct?

 

[Gigas]

Yes this whole family lacks venom glands

 

[beetleman]

they are really cool spiders:clap: mine finally made it's trap with strands of silk coming from the trap spreading out,they use those strands to detect passing insects very interesting,but my malayinsis(spelling) still didn't make it's trap yet. just hangs out in the corner in a little ditch.