Our Chicken Hunting Spider Thread

[meatbeef]

Wow Guys.
Thats fantastic stuff, thank you for posting everything you have.

 

[Crotalus]

Wow Guys.
Thats fantastic stuff, thank you for posting everything you have.

Thanks!
But that was a small fragment of what I have

/Lelle

 

[Dr Pies]

Whoa, I'm amazed this thread turned into this slanging match! It's a cool thread and I'm just hacked off I couldn't have been there
Need to hurry with those photo's Lelle

 

[Crotalus]

Sorry, but I posted the ones I wanted. The rest is for me, Sheris and my friends eyes and sure some turn up on my site eventually.

/Lelle

 

[Sheri]

To clarify...
By saying "Our Chicken Hunting Spider Thread" I meant our thread, not "our" spider! LOL


As for the possibility that this is another undescribed spider with the same behaviour, of course it's a possibility. Discounting the idea that there might be more than one species of communal burrower is as intellectually deficient as dismissing the idea of just one species at all! Which I did do initially.

Clearly, to appease some of you I would have to carve Mason-style into my forehead...

Chicken Hunters Forever - I believe!

Personally, I'm pretty satisfied for admitting where I was wrong, researching them, and then going into the jungle to photograph them.

There are some more, of course, we found at least 15 burrows, but neither Lelle or I have had time to really dissect and compare pics and notes. We were pretty excited to share the news with you initially.

 

[MizM]

BTW Arana with the squiggle over the n in Spanish can also refer to mites, and perhaps the farmer was complaining about another common poultry problem. Or perhaps they do indeed hunt in packs and gobble up chicks. In South Africa we had trouble with lizards killing our adult geese, after all.

Tim, thanks for the laugh, this is the cutest post in th thread!

The squiggle is called a tilde. I'm not sure how PCers do it, but on mac it's option + the letter you want the tilde to go over, then just the letter. Tow steps, but it gets you the ñ.

I have a B. smithi named araña linda (aranya leenda, roll the "r") Spanish for pretty spider. And she was!

 

[kellygirl]

Wow... the drama factor is slightly high in here! I think the reason why the general automatic reaction to the "chicken spider" in this thread was one of trust is because:

1. Sheri and Lelle are well-known characters on the Arachnoboards.
2. There is no reason to believe that they would have ulterior motives for creating a story about "chicken spiders" or doctoring pictures to prove their existence.

Previously, when the story and seemingly unbelieveable picture of the adult with spiderlings first came out, there was a lot of skepticism (and skepticism is not necessarily a bad thing). I remember people insisting that the picture was doctored and many pointed out exactly where in the picture it had to have been edited. It wasn't a personal attack on the guy because he was from any particular country and it certainly wasn't an attack on any country or continent as a whole. It just appeared that some random guy COULD have been making something up to sell a story.

Sheri and Lelle, however, are simply sharing pictures and experiences among friends and fellow hobbyists--not declaring to have discovered anything new, nor staking a claim on any "rights" to the "chicken spider." And I am very thankful that we are able to benefit from their first-hand experience. It's awesome that some "regular" folks got to go out and see this elusive behavior firsthand. Who gives a rat's patoot where the photographers are from?

Thanks for sharing, Lelle and Sheri! As if your trip wasn't already memorable enough!

-Kelly

P.S. The low-blow against American hobbyists was extremely disrespectful and not encouraging in the least. Rather than tear our fellow hobbyists down, we should build each other up--all over the world. We don't need more walls and more drama within this hobby. A decent, intelligent, ongoing, unbiased dialogue is much more productive.

 

[Martin H.]

Hi

A. Smith did, according to the lecture M. Nicholas held at the last BTS show.

BTW, here >>click me hard<< is a photo (sorry for the low qualitiy but this is a still image capture from a video film recorded at the lecture) of the specimen A. Smith examined – it has been shown during M. Nicholas's lecture about the chicken spider.

To the question at the lecture if this is a big specimen, M. Nicholas replied: "No, this is a medium sized one".

all the best,
Martin

 

[Randolph XX()]

man......so ,what size are we going to expect if that is a medium one?
man, just can't wait to see a gigantic one~

 

[TimV]

He meant specimen, as a specific individual of that kind, not how large the species gets.

 

[Crotalus]

He meant specimen, as a specific individual of that kind, not how large the species gets.

Yes offcourse, sorry, I misunderstood.
Ill delete my post.

/Lelle

 

[harrymaculata]

I don't see how you can make the assumption that "everyone in the states suddenly believes it" when only a handful of people have posted in this thread.

Most people seem to be commenting on the pictures themselves...

I haven't read one thing that implied that Sheri and Lelle "discovered" these spiders...

you and everyone else pull those sticks out your asses and lighten up this is the problem with written text it can be inturpreted in different ways just enjoy the great photos sheri and that have taken the time to post those pictures that they paid money to go and take by all rights they didn't have to share anything bout there trip with us so enjoy it cheers guys for sharing this great pics great trip

 

[kellygirl]

you and everyone else pull those sticks out your asses and lighten up this is the problem with written text it can be inturpreted in different ways just enjoy the great photos sheri and that have taken the time to post those pictures that they paid money to go and take by all rights they didn't have to share anything bout there trip with us so enjoy it cheers guys for sharing this great pics great trip

That was ONE sentence!!!

-Kelly

 

[Sheri]

Thanks for the kind words all!

Really, we just wanted to go see some spiders and snakes in the rainforest - though we knew the CHS was a possibility, it was far from certain. We actually expected to see a lot of Avicularia, and maybe some Tapinauchenius... to find what we did we were just incredibly lucky, and we're happy to share the pics and the news with you.

 

[midianholic]

Sheri and Lelle I only have two words for you.

Thank you.

What wonderful pix. Cheers.

 

[Martin H.]

Shery, may I aks why have you deleted your post?

Sat, 18 Jun 2005 07:39:31 -0500

Thanks Martin, I clicked very hard.

A large species indeed. Wish we had time to measure each one. The large females we saw were impressive, no doubt.

 

[Sheri]

Shery, may I aks why have you deleted your post?

Because I didn't want a debate to start about the size of the species and all kinds of speculation when I had no hard measurements with which to discuss the matter.

They were damn impressive Martin. But size is such a hard thing to estimate, especially outside of a terrarium. I had a lot of impressions, thoughts, and ideas when watching these animals, but am trying very hard to stay out of speculation and stick to hard and fast observations that were concrete.

Clearly, a new spider that few have seen and no one has specimens of is an exciting topic, and one that has captured the interest and imagination of many in the hobby. I can see how buzz and rumours start, and I don't want to contribute opinions rather than proof.

 

[Vanisher]

As some of you may recall, I was a little skeptical of the existance of a obligate NW burrower that appeared to live communally. It was clear that I needed to do some more research, and I did.

In Peru, with Lelle.

We only found one definite communal burrow... a mature female, and a sub-adult. But many other burrows around the lodge, some just a few feet from the lodge itself.

Amazing animals! Just unbelievably stunning. And BIG! And the experience of observing them in the wild... we could have just camped out in front of that burrow for hours I think, if we had more time to record as much info as possible, but we didn't have that long in the rainforest. Rick West confirmed it is an undescribed Pamphobeteus spp. that is referred to as the Chicken Hunting Spider.

Here is a pic of the confirmed communal burrow, the detail isn't great because I had to take it from far away as they were pretty skittish and would run back into the burrow at any disturbance. We were very lucky to find both out at once, I think. When we first explored that burrow, we saw the smaller one first... drew it out with the stick method. After it retreated Lelle tried again, and this time the large female emerged. It was clear, more so to Lelle because he was the one focusing on it, that there were two spiders of different sizes in there. Exciting as hell. But when we saw both out at the same time.... anyway, here is the pic, I hope Lelle's has turned out a little better.

Nice pictures Cheri. Intresting with Pamphos in comunal burrows. Remarkeble animals. I talked with Lelle today on the phone and he said the trip was great. He was sick thou

 

[Vanisher]

No, not very young ones that we could see. More intersting, in a way, that 2 larger ones were there, I think. Though the burrow was large, and deep...

Here is another, less cropped, of the 2 together.


And a younger specimen... looked like it had just found his burrow, and come from somewhere else as it was clearly opportunistic, and not dug out at all. No webbing in ANY of the burrows we found excpet for 2 that had hung their old molts in the debris at the top of the mouth of the burrow.

So you didnt saw any juveniles in the adult females burrows.? I read a intresting research, similar to yours done in Peru. They found young juveniles in the same burrows with adult females. I think it was Pampobeteus sp. I have heard the same story with Xenestis immanis. Intresting. Cheers.!!!///Johan

 

[Sheri]

Nice pictures Cheri. Intresting with Pamphos in comunal burrows. Remarkeble animals. I talked with Lelle today on the phone and he said the trip was great. He was sick thou

Hej Johan...
Ja, they really were incredible.
Lelle is not the only one that is sick, though I think it may just have been the lack of sleep we both had for that week.

And still itchy as hell from all the bites, but I'd do it again tomorrow if I could.

So you didnt saw any juveniles in the adult females burrows.? I read a intresting research, similar to yours done in Peru. They found young juveniles in the same burrows with adult females. I think it was Pampobeteus sp. I have heard the same story with Xenestis immanis. Intresting. Cheers.!!!///Johan

The communal burrow that we saw had one adult fermale and one sub-adult - unsure of the sex of the sub-adult. Without a camera we could insert down into the burrow it is impossible to know if there were more in there or not.