New Metriopelma zebrata

[GQ.]

I just received an early Christmas present. A two inch Metriopelma zebrata! It has already scarfed down two crickets. The tiger stripes on this T are cool as hell. Does anyone have any personal experiences with this T that they will share with me? The common name is labeled as Costa Rican Suntiger. Thanks! I just had to share this one. Pictures to follow this week.

 

[conipto]

I'd never heard this one mentioned before, but the picture on Rick west's site looks exactly like a Cyclosternum fasciatum, Costa Rican tigerrump. is this the same sp.?

Bill

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by conipto
I'd never heard this one mentioned before, but the picture on Rick west's site looks exactly like a Cyclosternum fasciatum, Costa Rican tigerrump. is this the same sp.?

Bill

Bill, it is a valid species, and if you want to add to the confusion, the common name is Costa Rican Suntiger. I'd definitely have to have one in front of me to know the difference but there's a gazillion sites that have pictures of it and they all look like a tigerrump. Hoke has this on his site:

Metriopelma zebratum, Costa Rican Dwarf Tigerrump. A small tarantula from the rainforests of Costa Rica, very similar in appearance and needs to Cyclosternum fasciatum. It can be kept on shallow substrate with an adequate retreat and a large water bowl.

 

[GQ.]

Code and Conipto - I'll try to get a picture up in the next couple of days. I did see a Cyclosternum fasciatum picture and it looks identical to the little T I have which is labeled Metriopelma zebrata. I'm just hoping that it was labeled right by whomever sold the T originally. I think I'll go out of my way to purchase a C. fasciatum so that I can see for myself what the differences are. Either way it looks spectacular! The rump is bright red-orange with nicely contrasting black tiger stripes. As a matter of fact, I'll do my best to get a picture posted tonight. I just have to secure the digital cam first.

 

[Phillip]

The pattern is different.

Swift has a good picture of a zebrata as well as a fasciatum on his site and you can see there that the pattern is slightly different but yes they do look similar. The zebrata is a good bit rarer though.

Phil

 

[GQ.]

Here are a couple of pictures as promised. These pictures aren't all that great. Hopefully you get an idea of what it looks like though.

 

[GQ.]

....and the second picture.

 

[Immortal_sin]

oh wow...I'd have to pull out my C fasciatum, but they DO look incredibly simliar!
In fact, I think I'll just post a pic..here you go!

 

[conipto]

OK, I give up. What is the difference between the two? just size at adulthood? And this would make it a different Genus altogether? Also Phil, I see no difference in markings... Explain?

Bill

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Someone needs to get in touch with Rick West. Because I can't discern the difference in the two species.

Big Dragonfly

 

[Code Monkey]

I can see them being two species if the suntiger is a much smaller size at maturity than the tigerrump, but I'll be damned if I can where they're supposedly completely different genera. I'd like to know how the taxonomists arrived at this one.

 

[Immortal_sin]

oh good, I"m not the only one! I was thinking that I must be missing something obvious, since they look EXACTLY alike to me. Also, the C fasciatum is small at adulthood too, I think it only gets to be around 4" or so.
I'll be damned if I know what the difference is!

 

[ArachnoJoost]

The only difference I can see is that the Metriopelma has 5 orange bands on the abdomen, and the fasciatum has 6 (the very small band near the cephalothorax included), but then again that one band could be hidden by the patch of urticaters on the metriopelma...

 

[Phillip]

the band count...

That's about all the difference there is .. the band count. Like I said they look really similar.
Phil

 

[conipto]

OK, I'm gonna do a Chip style madden play by play here, because I count 6 on both. The most posterior chevron you can atleast see the top arch of on the upper set of pictures (the M. zebratum) and the 6 are quite obvious on Holley's C. fimbriatus.

Anyone else see this?

Bill

 

[GQ.]

I'm with you conipto. I certainly can't tell the difference. Of course I am far from being a tarantula expert. I will post an update on how big this little bugger gets. I'm also going to buy a C. fasciatum or two just to satisfy my own curiosity. I'll try to track down the supplier of this T as well. I'd like to ask them where the T came from and basically ask them a bunch of questions.

 

[Swifty]

M. zebrata

There has been alot of confusion with this species, but if you were to actually see one next to a C. fasciatum, you would be able to identify it. They are much smaller, and are more stout than C. fasciatum. I have only had one adult female (the specimen in the photo), but they are quite different. Both spiders in the pevious photos I believe are C. fasciatum. The photo on John Hokes website, is my photo also.

The confusion of these species reminds me much of the often confused B. boehmei vs A. bicoloratum. You really have to look.

 

[GQ.]

Swift -

Well I'm bummed if the T was in fact mislabeled. Still, the tarantula I have is a pretty cool tarantula so I'm not complaining too much. What price do the M. zebrata usually fetch?

 

[John Bokma]

Ok, very old thread, but since I heard that my CF might be MZ I did some Googling:

1) adult MZ is about 5 cm
2) MZ misses a part of the pattern CF has
3) male MZ seems to have no spurs
( source: http://www.kara-inci.nl/lasiodora soorten.htm (Dutch) )
Found this MZ picture: http://www.minaxtarantulas.net/galleri/bilder/m_zebrata.jpg
Compare it with this one:
http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2006/05/04/coyolillo-mexican-tiger-rump-5.html
which might be a CF, or not, but I am quite sure it's not MZ (too big, and males I have found have spurs).

(BTW my avatar is a Bonetina sp. )

 

[MRL]

Well thankfully this thread was resurrected. I was wondering why my supposed C. fasciatum were so much smaller than ones I've heard and seen.

My female that's currently holding a sac is 2.5" if I'm being generous. The male that matured and was eaten was 3"

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showpost.php?p=671289&postcount=4

I guess it's actually M. zebrata then?