Need suggestions for planned trip to Vietnam border..

[MaartenSFS]

Oke, so in little over a week I will be going on a trip to the Vietnamese border, which has a very high level of biodiversity. Species I'd like to find are Haplopelma huwenum/schmidti, Plesiophrictus guangxiensis, Citharognathus tongmianensis, Scolopendra subspinipes, Amblypigids, et cetera.

Since I haven't found any large spiders yet does anyone have any suggestions for collecting Haplopelma sp.?

1) Where should I look for the burrow?

2) How should I get the spider out?

3) Haplopelma huwenum is supposed to be very aggressive and its toxicity is being studied so what kind of measures do I need to take to play it safe?

4) How big does a 20cm aggressive spider "feel"? Am I going to be out of my element?

5) Any other inverts I need to be looking out for while I'm there?

 

[James H]

When I was in Panama last summer looking for snakes and bugs what I would do once we stopped at a place for the night is to walk the road cuts in sunlight and mark the holes that looked like something interesting might be in them, then come back at night with a flashlight and see if anyone was home. I prefer to use a red light until I figure out if a normal light will startle the critter. That way I didn’t spend time digging when I could be moving on to the next spot. If I did find a spider that was home I would try to collect up some feeder insects to try to bait it out. Large crickets or cockroaches seemed to work pretty well for me.

When I was looking for amblypigids I would wait till night then shine a good flashlight along any cut banks or cliff faces that had a good amount of cracks they seem to come out well after dark and be on more vertical facing slabs or large tree trunks.

As for any centipedes I really looked for down logs or large rocks and give them a good flip. I found both millipedes and centipedes out during the daytime in the shadows at the base of trees and in leaf litter.

I hope that this gives you some ideas and good luck.

 

[MaartenSFS]

Thanks for the reply and sorry for taking so long to get back to you. The Vietnam border trip ended up being cancelled (That's what happens when you don't plan it yourself ). I have been on some short local trips, though, and found a new bigger species of Macrothele. The big ones will have to wait until later..