Malaysia, spider identity?

[moloch]

Greetings,

I will soon be putting together a thread in the Field Trip forum regarding the Fraser's Hill area of Malaysia. Before I do, I wonder if someone can help with the identification of the following spider. I found it while walking along road cuts at night. When I first saw the legs, I assumed that it was a tarantula. I teased it with a stem of grass and it came charging out from beneath the cracked rock where it was sheltering. It was a big spider and strong judging by the force that it applied to the stem of grass.

Does anyone recognize it or at least the family?

I did find tarantulas but they were not so cooperative. I will have photos of these in the field trip thread.




Thanks,
David

 

[Zoltan]

The family is Liphistiidae (suborder Mesothelae). There are five described liphistiid genera, but only Liphistius is recorded from Malaysia.

 

[moloch]

Thanks very much for the identification.

I googled it and turned up links here on arachnoboards. Sounds like I was lucky to see it. Here is one of the links:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/4/2/nation/10577174&sec=nation


Regards,
David

 

[Zoltan]

It might be Liphistius malayanus, I'm not familiar enough with Liphistius to attempt a "photo-ID".

I noticed in the article they refer to it as a "tarantula". Usually when people say tarantula, especially on this forum, they mean a spider from the family Theraphosidae (infraorder Mygalomorphae, suborder Opisthothelae). Liphistius and the four other liphistiid genera belong to the family Liphistiidae (suborder Mesothelae). Liphistiidae is a different group of spiders from Theraphosidae. The suborder names refer to the position of the spinnerets: in Opisthotheale (Mygalomorphae + Araneomorphae) the spinnerets are positioned posteriorly on the opisthosoma, whereas in Mesothelae they are positioned midventrally, in a more anterior position than in Opisthothelae.

 

[TheTyro]

I just saw a photo of a similar spider in Attenborough's book Life in the Undergrowth. The residual plating on the abdomen is so cool, as are those extra long palps.

I hope they stick around for several thousand more years!

 

[Anubis77]

I just saw a photo of a similar spider in Attenborough's book Life in the Undergrowth. The residual plating on the abdomen is so cool, as are those extra long palps.

I hope they stick around for several thousand more years!

Several hundred more million, I hope. To me, it's fascinating to imagine how much of Earth's history the Liphistiidae family has witnessed. The whole of human history, even mammalian dominion, is just a fraction of their existence. The same could be said of many species, but who retains their plesiomorphic morphology more vividly than Liphistius malayanus and relatives?

If you can't tell, Mesothelae are my favorite arachnids. Great shots of that individual, David. It's definitely Liphistius sp. like Zoltan said. Possibly L. malayanus, but, from what I've seen with the 2 or 3 species that were imported to the West, there are superficial similarities between several species at adulthood.

 

[sharpfang]

+ Two!

Creepy, yet cool looking spider...TY 4 info Zoltan and Pix OP :razz:

 

[proper_tea]

Huh... I used to have one of those. Hadn't realized they'd stopped being available, or that their collection was so devastating to the local population. They used to be easy to get. They were like $25.

 

[proper_tea]

huh...

apparently a seller had a Liphistius murphyorum for sale for $25 about a month ago. I know there was at least one Liphistius successful breeding and sac... hopefully it was from that, and hopefully there are more on the way once those mature and start to breed.

 

[Anubis77]

huh...

apparently a seller had a Liphistius murphyorum for sale for $25 about a month ago. I know there was at least one Liphistius successful breeding and sac... hopefully it was from that, and hopefully there are more on the way once those mature and start to breed.

They're being bred on some level from the original shipments. Juveniles pop up once in a while. I know Chris Young had several CB L. malayanus for a while.

The L. murphyorum that were floating around might actually have been just more L. malayanus.

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showpost.php?p=1041866&postcount=20

 

[MaartenSFS]

Incredible specimen and I can't wait for your post in the Field Trip forum (my favourite category).