...New Tarantula/Spider ID. From Costa Rica

[SergioCR]

...New Tarantula ID. From Costa Rica

Hello, long time no post here... 'been very very busy at work and some other things going on but i'm still here...

Today i was doing some cleaning at a friends house and, when removing some junk and old woods at backyard (and re-locating them somewhere else of course) found this "interesting spider" under them. i'll try to get some better pics tomorrow but by now that's what i have... (sorry for bad quality pics, it's night here and i was holding the camera with one hand and the delicup with the other near a lamp)

It does a lot of webbing at the ground, not too much urticating hairs in there (just some at the legs) but does has the "parallel fangs" and some red/pink mouth under so i went to the car, grabbed an empty deli-cup (i always carry two now just in case i found something interesting ) and it went easy inside... it's about less than an inch in size now, matte brown/black. any ideas?

 

[Tony]

Looks like a Mygalopmorph to me ...But a tarantula? Hmmm. Looks alot like Diplurids I saw before, but only going by Huge spinnerets
T

 

[SergioCR]

Looks like a Mygalopmorph to me ...But a tarantula? Hmmm. Looks alot like Diplurids I saw before, but only going by Huge spinnerets
T

That's the thing... i don't know what it is... parallel fangs, big mouth but no hairs at back... matte color... slow walking.

 

[Jmadson13]

that's interesting. Definitely a mygalomorph, whish I could tell you which species.

 

[SergioCR]

...is it a tarantula or what... maybe not?

..another pic...

 

[8 legged freak]

is it some sort of trapdoor maybe?

 

[SergioCR]

is it some sort of trapdoor maybe?

...maybe... it was found outside under some old woods at ground, parallel fangs, a lot of webbing, slow walking but no urticating hairs patch.

 

[David Burns]

Maybe a ventral shot. Does it have booklungs?

 

[SergioCR]

Maybe a ventral shot. Does it have booklungs?

it does... two at each side... very difficult to take a pic since it's very small... less than an inch but it does.

 

[T.Raab]

Hi,

for me it looks like Hexathelidae (like Marcothele ...) or Dipluridae (like Linothele ...). Those two familys are very close.

I dont think that it is a "Trapdoor".

 

[Steve Nunn]

Hi,
It is from the Dipluridae. As T.Raab said, it could also be from the Hexathelidae, but I'll explain as best I can how to eliminate that family. The low caput (head region the eyes are placed on) is low, in most hexathelids, the caput is somewhat elevated. The length of the spinerett sections idicate Dipluridae too. 2 other families possess long spineretts, but not with equal sections, as seen in your pic.

If it was a hexathelid, then labial cuspules would be present (found only on the Theraphosidae and Hexathelidae), here is an image of labial cuspules (dense cluster of small roundish tubercles, black in colour always)

But I'm quite sure you won't see them on your spider Once you determine the absence of the labial cuspules (ruling out the genus Macrothele, from the Hexathelidae), then it leaves one last possibility, the family Mecicobothriidae, which I actually ruled out earlier, because mecicobothriids possess an extremely long apical segment of the posterior lateral spineretts, the spinerett segments on yours are integral/uniform.

So, once you see there are no labial cuspules, you will know you have a diplurid

From the Dipluridae in your area, there are the genera Euagrus (sp.carlos) and Ischnothele. T.Raab mentioned the diplurid genus Linothele, which are not known in your country, but found very close, so it is possible

Hope this narrows it down a little for you
Steve

 

[Kid Dragon]

That looks like a Costa Rica Funnel-web tarantula.

 

[Steve Nunn]

That looks like a Costa Rica Funnel-web tarantula.

Didn't know there were funnel-webs in CR??? But I guess to me a funnel-web is a potentially lethal mygale from Australia/PNG?????

Funny with common names, because nothing from the genus Atrax or Hadronyche is that closely related to anything from the NW, other then familial ties??????

Oh, maybe all from the Hexathelidae are funnel-webs?? At least that narrows it down to one family. Oh, but then some also call diplurids, nemesiids and mecicobothriids as funnel-webs, don't they??? Ah, but you said "Costa Rican funnel-web tarantula", so that now includes the Theraphosidae too (tarantula being the common name for theraphosids)??

The I guess the term "funnel-web" narrows it down to about half the families in the Mygalomorphae

Common names are hideous aren't they, lol

Steve

 

[SergioCR]

Hi!
Wow, now that's a good explanation of that spider! thanks! so in fact is a dipluridae, when i found it the first thinking was "what a funny t, no hairs" because it do has the booklungs and parallel fangs.... thanks a lot! great help!
...now, how big could they grow? or is it full grown adult at less than an inch? lol!

Hi,
It is from the Dipluridae. As T.Raab said, it could also be from the Hexathelidae, but I'll explain as best I can how to eliminate that family. The low caput (head region the eyes are placed on) is low, in most hexathelids, the caput is somewhat elevated. The length of the spinerett sections idicate Dipluridae too. 2 other families possess long spineretts, but not with equal sections, as seen in your pic.

If it was a hexathelid, then labial cuspules would be present (found only on the Theraphosidae and Hexathelidae), here is an image of labial cuspules (dense cluster of small roundish tubercles, black in colour always)

But I'm quite sure you won't see them on your spider Once you determine the absence of the labial cuspules (ruling out the genus Macrothele, from the Hexathelidae), then it leaves one last possibility, the family Mecicobothriidae, which I actually ruled out earlier, because mecicobothriids possess an extremely long apical segment of the posterior lateral spineretts, the spinerett segments on yours are integral/uniform.

So, once you see there are no labial cuspules, you will know you have a diplurid

From the Dipluridae in your area, there are the genera Euagrus (sp.carlos) and Ischnothele. T.Raab mentioned the diplurid genus Linothele, which are not known in your country, but found very close, so it is possible

Hope this narrows it down a little for you
Steve

 

[Tony]

Yay, no less than Steve Nunn on Dipluriid...Neat neat spiders, quick too.
T

 

[T.Raab]

Hi Steve,

thx for your posting - very good information.

T.Raab mentioned the diplurid genus Linothele

I think you understand my post not 100% or my english is not as good as it should. I only added the genus Macrothele and Linothele for explaining the subfamily. I noticed in the past that the most ppl dont know what Hexathelidae and Dipluridae are. So i decided to add a genus name for clearing the situation.
I dont thought that this spider is a Macrothele or Linothele - and this why those 2 families arent my faves and i dont know enough to mentioned this.

Hope i could explain what i mean.

 

[Steve Nunn]

.
I dont thought that this spider is a Macrothele or Linothele - and this why those 2 families arent my faves and i dont know enough to mentioned this.

Hope i could explain what i mean.

Hi Timo,
Perfectly, now I understand, you picked representatives from the families, makes sense to me

@ Tony, lol, yup, your pick was spot on too

 

[Randolph XX()]

might not be Macrothele, cuz they can only be found in Asia as far as i know

 

[T.Raab]

HI,

might not be Macrothele, cuz they can only be found in Asia as far as i know

they also occurs from other places in Europe and Africa:
M. abrupta (Congo - Africa)
M. calpeiana (South Spain - Europe)
M. camerunensis (Cameroon - Africa)
M. cretica (Crete/Greece - Europe)
and
M. incisa (Congo - Africa)

 

[Randolph XX()]

opps my bad, but not in the new world