Possible misidentiication

[Dean W]

Possible misidentification

I saw a spide in the pet store, labelled as a skeleton spider. i never heard of this before, and being a petstore, naturally it didn't have the latin name. Just wonderin if any of you had heard of it.

 

[rknralf]

If it is labeled "Skeleton", it could be Ephebopus murinus. They are a reasonable sized tarantula, adult size between 4.5 and 5 inches, fairly aggressive/defensive (I don't even attempt to handle mine), and excessive webbers. Mine has already covered it's 5.5 gallon aquarium with webbing.
Best bet would be to look up pics on the web abd compare them to the one in the pet shop. If it is a true skeleton tarantula, and you get it, you won't be dissapointed. I love mine!
Ralph

 

[Dean W]

well, this one had no webbing, at least non visible. Quite small for a T, very fast, but docile. I'll look up pics to compare with.

 

[MizM]

I have seen a. seemani labeled as "Skeleton". Does it have a salmon colored fuzzy underside?

 

[Arachnopuppy]

Originally posted by MizM
I have seen a. seemani labeled as "Skeleton". Does it have a salmon colored fuzzy underside?

I was going to say the same thing.

 

[MizM]

I just type faster!

 

[Dean W]

uh uh

Nope, no salmon hair. Dark red hair, but not even much of that. Its mostly black, and shimmery, if that makes any sense to you.

 

[MizM]

You can see the "salmon angora" sticking out of the tummy on that second picture!! Pretty!

 

[Midwest Art]

E. murinus

There is also a "jungle" form of E. murinus with a darker carapace.

N-Joy
Art

 

[Dean W]

mmm, it looked more like the bottom pic, of the first 2. It was all black tho, no white, or cream anywhere. But it had a little red int he hair.

 

[Action Jackson]

Red Skeleton (E. Rufescens), maybe?

www.swiftinverts.com/pix/Er3.jpg

Edit: Eh, the link didn't work, but you can still find a pic on Swift's site.

 

[Dean W]

that looks a little more like it. ALthough not exactly, but it is pretty small, perhaps it will look like that as an adult.

 

[hooale]

Hi,

The picture posted by Delonigan is a pic. made by F.VOL. It is E.rufescens not murinus.

I posted a pic a while ago on the pic list of the dark form of E.murinus, don't ahve it on this computer though. I will see if i can find it.
Regards,
Alex

 

[hooale]

Attached the pic

 

[kellygirl]

Is there any way that you could provoke the spider? One quick 'n' easy way to see if it's an Ephebopus species (rufescens, murinus, or whatever) is to see where the urticating hairs come from during "defense mode." Ephebopus species have urticating hairs on the pedipalps instead of the abdomen. I don't know much about A. seemanni and I know you said this happens to be a docile specimen but I figure it would answer a lot of questions if you could see where the urticating hairs are. I think Ephebopus are typically a more aggressive/defensive genus--quicker to kick (or throw, in this case?) hairs--but then again, each spider is different.

I also have to wonder how good the selection is at the pet store, typically. Most pet stores, if they carry tarantulas, have A. seemanni. I would think that a Ephebopus species would be an extremely rare pet store find. Good luck figuring out what it is!

kellygirl

 

[TheSpiderHouse]

Originally posted by hooale
Hi,

The picture posted by Delonigan is a pic. made by F.VOL. It is E.rufescens not murinus.

I posted a pic a while ago on the pic list of the dark form of E.murinus, don't ahve it on this computer though. I will see if i can find it.
Regards,
Alex

Hi, the first pic I posted is mine, and definately not a E rufescens, its a E. murinus. The second pic is actually an arachnopets picture of an A. seemanni. The third pic is from a french website, though I don't speak french it appears to be labelled a E murinus, dark form. I'm not positive of this, but that pic doesn't look like a E rufescens to me.

 

[hooale]

Sorry i was talking about the third pic. The pic is labled Ephebopus fossor, this photo was taking before West's description of rufescens otherwise it would be labled as E.rufescens. On fred's site you can find the name of the spiders below the pictures.

http://membres.lycos.fr/fred64/